


A Month of Ahkmen

by OddmentsandTweaks



Series: A Treasured Collection [12]
Category: Night at the Museum (Movies)
Genre: Ahk loves music, Ahkmen, Ahkmen gets a teddy bear, Ahkmen gets very homesick in chapter 3, Ahkmen is adorable, Ahkmen is really cute, Ahkmen loves to learn, Ahkmen will sleep anywhere, Ahkmenrah was very willing to fight for his freedom, Anna is mischievous, Attila is a big softy, Chapter 5 (Unreasonable Force) is quite a bit darker than usual, Chapter 5 deals with how Teddy Sac & Larry first bond over whiskey, Chapter 5 is mostly flashback, Chocolate features towards the end of this, De-Aged Ahkmenrah, F/M, Gen, Jed and Octavius are heroes, Jed and Octavius save the day, Larry Daley does his best, Larry is actually a good dad and a good night guard, Larry panics with good reason, Larry really needs to keep a better eye on Ahkmen, Learning the English language, Mention of torture, Mentions of Ahk locked up before Larry freed him, Mentions of Violence, Mentions of use of tasers, Museum as a family, Nala is in fact a boss, Nicky Daley has awesome language skills, Nicky and Ahk share music, Nicky and Ahkmenrah are dorks, Nicky has issues, OMC-James- (one of Teddy's old friends), Original surrogate father/son bonding, Ragnar is a big softy, Teddy and Sac are awesome museum parents, Teddy suffered a lot, Teddy's backstory of his time in the museum before Larry-it wasn't pretty, The cavemen are pretty good artists, The old night guards were total douchecanoes, There's very little of Ahkmen in Chapter 5, Using perfumes in the museum is a bad plan, he just needs to be reminded of this from time to time, like really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-06
Updated: 2016-04-25
Packaged: 2018-04-19 10:48:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 47,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4743506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OddmentsandTweaks/pseuds/OddmentsandTweaks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ahkmenrah has been de-aged due to a tablet malfunction, Rebecca the Docent, currently on a world book tour can't help till the end of the month leaving the museum exhibits to deal with a very lost, very homesick five-year-old Ahkmenrah...</p>
<p>A story in which the exhibits are caring, Ahkmenrah is questioning and Nicky is really good at languages...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Lessons in Language

**Author's Note:**

> I am so very sorry for the shockingly long amount of time it has taken me to update. Everything seems to have happened this month. Everything and its Mother. Also, my laptop finally broke but I now have I new one! Hurrah!
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has been kind enough to kudos and to comment on these stories, I can't tell you how happy they make me! So Thank YOU!

Larry took a deep, steadying breath.

This was going to be one hell of a challenge but they had to see it through. They OWED Ahk that much to look after him whilst he was like this. He consoled himself with the thought that if they did a good job and he remembered that when he grew up again (and please God let that be soon) then maybe, just maybe, he might have a few more happy memories. It was a long shot but he had to hope.

First things first. He had to tell the others. 

 

He checked his watch, 12 midnight.

He doubled checked. 

 

That couldn't be right!

 

 This honestly felt like the longest night in history. He made his way back to the main desk, looking for his friends trying desperately to work out what to say. 

 

Turns out he didn't need to. 

 

Octavius took one look at the Night Guard's face, “so our docent could not help I take it?” 

 

“No,” admitted Larry, “we've got our mini-Ahk for a month.” 

 

“A month!” came the incredulous cry of his friends.

 

“Yeah, she's in Paris, nowhere near her notes and doesn't want to try messing with the tablet unless she's absolutely sure.” 

 

“Well quite right.” Agreed Teddy, “It would be pointless to meddle when we do not know the outcome, we can face this challenge together I am sure.” 

 

“Glad we discussed it, you two still okay for bedtime duty?” Larry turned to the resident exhibit parents of the museum.

“Thanks guys, I owe you, tomorrow night we start language lessons.” 

 

“Sounds like a plan Gigantor!” hooted Jed approvingly

 

“I wonder,” began Sac looking thoughtful.

 

“Yes?”

 

“It may sound odd but I find I struggle to call our friend by the names he gave us, both formal and short, they do not fit him if you understand me.” 

 

“No, you're right Sacagawea, he's not Ahkmenrah anymore,” Agreed Octavius, “well, he is but well,” He tried to find the right words, “it seems strange to call a child by their full name.” 

 

“Unless they're in trouble,” added Jed sagely, “my momma could make ‘Jedediah’ ring through th' whole damn town when she wanted.”

 

“Why does that not surprise me?”

 

“I bet your momma did the same.”

 

Octavius snorted contemptuously whilst very aware of the guilty blush creeping across his cheeks, “She did nothing of the sort!”

 

“Liar, all momma's can, it's like a gift or something.” 

 

“Guys.” Began Larry in his ‘pack-it-in’ voice

 

“Sorry.” Both miniatures chorused.

 

“What I meant was,” pressed Sac,  “I would rather call him something different, he is no longer our friend grown and I feel we should have something to distinguish between the two figures, when he grows,” they all noticed she avoided the 'if', “we will need to be able to separate the two versions we have, prince and pharaoh.”

 

“I'm with you on that, what do you suggest then?”

 

“Ahkmen,” answered Sac immediately, “it is not his full name but it is not as familiar as his museum name either.” 

 

“Ahkmen,” Larry tried, testing it out, “I like it, sounds good.” 

 

“Speakin' o'which, look Gigantor!”

 

Nicky was returning with a clearly very sleepy, slightly upset Ahkmen in tow, the little boy clutching the older child's hand whilst stumbling, looking thoroughly miserable. “Sac, Ahk's tired. He fell asleep sitting up and faceplanted the floor while he was crayoning,” He looked up quickly, sounding defensive, “I couldn't stop him in time!”

 

Sac nodded to Nicky then bent down to have a look at the little boy, his eyes were dark and there were fresh tear tracks on his face along with a new graze on his nose. 

 

“My,” Teddy crouched down too, “you have been in the wars haven't you?”

 

_“M'tired, I want to go to bed, want to go home, want mummy!”_

 

“Come here little moon,” Sac opened her arms to the tiny Egyptian. 

 

Ahkmen all but fell into the Shoshone woman with a whimper. She cuddled him close and he latched on with all his might. “I think it is time to sleep Ahkmen.” 

 

He raised his head suddenly. 

 

_“Mummy calls me that!”_ Nicky translated for him once more. Boy was he glad he’d paid as much attention as he had in the lessons with Ahk.

 

“May I call you it?”

 

_“Yes. You're Moon Mother.”_

 

“Well thank you. Let's get you to bed shall we?”

 

_“I still want Mummy.”_

 

“I know little moon, I know, but she's not here right now as much as we all wish it. We just have to follow the will of the Gods.” 

 

Ahkmen screwed his face and let out a frustrated sob. _“But I want to go home! I want mummy! Kah’s bigger than me! He should have been picked!”_

 

“Are you questioning the will of the gods Ahkmen?”

 

_“Yes! No!”_ He looked very torn before admitting in a small voice _, “Maybe…”_

 

“They picked you because you’re very special,” continued Sac, trying to sound as firm and patient as she could, “they wouldn’t have picked you if they didn’t think you would be the best person from the palace. They didn’t pick Kah because he wouldn’t have been as good as you.”

_“I’m better than Kah?”_ There was such a question in his voice, like his very foundations were being shook to their core.

 

“Yes.”

 

“ _No I can’t be! I’m too small and weak, he said! He’s the crown prince! He’s going to be pharaoh!”_   

“Ahkmen,” Sac’s voice took on a no-nonsense edge, “who do you think knows best? Kah or the Gods?”

The little boy was looking at her like it was a trick question.

Sac rose her eyebrow.

_“The G-Gods?”_ Ahkmen was actually questioning this. How much power did one brother have over their sibling? When Sacagawea got hold of him he was going to be very sorry indeed.

“Yes. The Gods know best, they picked you because you’re worthy and everyone else you see here too have been picked as well. We’re all in the gods favour here. I know it isn’t home little moon but it’s somewhere very special.”

_“It is?”_

“Yes and I promise that we’ll all look after you.” 

_ “You will?” _

“Yes.”

The rest of the room joined in. 

“Absolutely.”

“You have my word.”

“Darn Tootin’!”

“ _You’re one of us sand prince.”_

_ “You are safe with us little one.” _

“Of course we will.”

The tiny Egyptian stared at each of the adults in the room. There was utter conviction in each and every face. They meant it he realised. 

The child gasped. 

They meant it and they weren’t even the royal guards. 

He turned to face all of them, bowing low to the group, _“thank you, I Ahkmenrah, son of Merenkehre Pharaoh of the lands of Egypt thank you for your kindness and service.”_

 

Everyone, fairly stunned by this display bowed back out of sheer response instinct. 

 

“Hot damn, I knew Ahk could fancy talk but he’s worse than you.” 

 

“He was trained from birth Jedediah, this is ingrained in him.”  

 

“Yeah, I can see but he’s jus’ so tiny.” Jed was obviously upset by this, it perplexed Octavius since similar lessons of manners and how to conduct oneself were already being taught to him at this age however, it was probably not prudent to point this out to Jed right now. 

 

“They clearly started very young.” 

 

“Too young, tyke’s gotta play.”

 

“Well I am quite certain we may ensure that my friend.” 

 

This cheered Jed up instantly, bless Octy, he always knew what to say to make him feel better, “Hell yeah!”

 

“Right, well I think we should be getting someone to bed. Say good night Ahkmen.” Instructed Sac.

 

The little boy gave everyone a heartfelt wave before pressing back against Sac. The Shoshone woman picked him up easily, lifting him on to her hip. “We may see you all later this evening. Goodnight my friends.” 

 

“Night Sac, Ahkmen, Hope it goes well.” 

 

“Our pharaoh will be well cared for, have no fear Lawrence.” 

 

“No fear here, you guys will be awesome.” 

 

With that Teddy, Sac, Ahkmen and Jean-Baptiste headed for the Egyptian exhibit. 

 

Ahkmen was half asleep by the time they reached his exhibit, Sac pulled back the blanket and laid the little boy inside, hoping he might just settle. 

 

No such luck. 

 

The sleepy child instead of just giving in was refusing to succumb. 

 

He looked around the dim tomb fearfully _, “I don’t like this place! It’s dark and it smells dead!”_ He began to work himself up into a panic, _“don’t leave me here! The monsters will come the monsters will come in the dark!”_

 

He latched on hard to Sac, tears beginning to pour down his face. 

 

Honestly neither Sac nor Teddy could blame him, it must be terrifying for him and the idea of being left behind (at least that’s what they assumed he was crying about since Nicky had stayed behind-they had to get used to working out what Ahk was saying on their own) would be unthinkable. 

 

“Hey, hey now Ahkmen, it’s alright, we’re not going anywhere, we’re not going to leave you.” 

 

_ “I don’t want to sleep here!”  _

 

“Ahkmen,” 

 

_ “No! It’s wrong! I don’t like it, I want to go home. Please! I want mummy! My mummy!” _ He started to sniffle again, rubbing his eyes with tiny fists he sat dwarfed by his own sarcophagus. He was just so small and miserable, placed as he was on those blankets he couldn’t have looked further from home if he tried and he knew it. Tired, lost and desperately homesick she knew they were only moments from another flood of rather justified tears. Sac would have given anything in that moment to ease him.  

 

She tried as best as she could, “There now, this is where the gods have decreed you stay but we will stay with you, come now and I shall sing for you?” She stroked his little face, trying to sooth the unhappy boy. 

 

“Would you like to hold the baby my lad?” Teddy knew a losing battle when he saw one and offered his infant son to the frightened child in the hope it would provide a good enough distraction instead.

 

Ahkmen’s eyes lit up. 

 

“ _Can I?”_

 

“Yes so long as you sit nicely.” Sac gestured to make her point.

 

Ahkmen sat back down at once. 

 

“Here you go.” Very carefully she placed the baby in the child’s arms. The little boy beamed. 

 

_ “He’s so beautiful!” _

 

“Yes he is!” 

 

_“I think you’re the most beautifulest baby I’ve ever seen,”_ stated Ahkmen proudly before kissing Jean-Baptiste softly on the forehead.

 

JB stirred, opening his eyes to take in Ahkmen, his dark eyes regarding the child with interest. The little one gazed at him in wonder. The baby reached for Ahkmen’s button nose before yawning widely and settling back to doze. It was clearly infectious, Ahkmen was soon yawning too.

 

Sac began to stroke Ahkmen’s head, running her fingers through his short curls softly. She began to hum, then to sing. It was instinctive by now.

 

Ahkmen perked up immediately.

 

_“That’s mummy’s song!”_

 

Oh curses. She’d forgotten this was originally Ahkmenrah’s lullaby, she’d been using it so long she had begun to think of it as hers. This could either go very well or very poorly.

 

She nodded and continued to sing

 

_“Do all mummies know this song?”_ _He’d only been around his mummy so maybe ALL mummies sang it to their children? It wasn’t as if he’d been around many other children, especially not at bedtime. Maybe it was just a thing ALL mummies did? It made sense_ , he thought, _Moon-Mother was a mummy and SHE sang it so it must be true._

Sacagawea smiled at his question, guessing roughly at what he was asking, she knew the word for ‘mother’ now so it wasn’t too hard to suppose what he was asking. Better to agree. Made life a lot easier.

 

She continued to sing in English, Jean-Baptiste being held as he was, comfortable and hearing his favourite lullaby began to doze off once again, yawned widely. Ahkmen followed suit. 

 

His eyelids began to droop as his whole body did the same. 

 

“Come on now son, lie down.” 

 

_ “No! Don’t want to sleep!” _

 

“Ahkmen, it’s bedtime, look Jean-Baptiste is tired too!”

 

_ “No! Don’t want to! Mummy will come!”  _

 

“Why don’t you lie down with him?” Teddy gestured to get his meaning across

 

He expected argument but only received a gruding _“M’okay.”_

 

“That’s my lad.” 

 

Ahkmen, with Teddy’s help, shuffled down to nestle on the blankets, Jean-Baptiste moved by his father’s experienced hands to lie next to the tiny pharaoh. Ahkmen cuddled up to the baby immediately whilst JB batted affectionately at friendly face he found himself next to. 

 

All the while Sacagawea sang, one hand stroking Ahkmen’s hair the other clasping Teddy’s hand for dear life. 

 

It didn’t take long for both children to fall sound asleep, Teddy tucking the blanket around them as Sac kissed the pair of boys. 

 

“Now what shall we do my dear?”

 

“Now we wait in case he wakes, we cannot risk him being unsettled as he was last night, that was too close to dawn for comfort.” 

 

“I agree, I suggest we stay here till almost dawn then ask Lawrence to keep watch for the final minutes just in case.” 

 

“Yes, if you find him to ensure he knows our intent I shall stay here and await your return.” 

 

“Excellent my dear, I shall be as quick as I can.” With a quick kiss Teddy was off in search of Larry. 

 

Sac settled to watch over the sleeping young ones. This was going to be an interesting month she thought. All she could do she thought, was try to ensure Ahkmen felt as safe and as loved here at the museum as he did in his own home. If they could achieve that, have him happy to be with them then she would consider her job well done. 

 

It was getting it done was going to prove the real trial. 

***

 

The next morning Larry and Nicky were there to greet an awakened Ahkmen. 

 

Larry had kept Nicky back from the sarcophagus whilst he opened it, he didn’t want Nicky to see what Ahk looked like during the day, if he was having trouble with it then he was sure Nicky would probably end up with nightmares. 

 

At least last night had gone to plan. Ahkmen was exhausted, it had been a busy two nights for a little boy and like his older self he needed to sleep. And sleep he did, peacefully and undisturbed he didn’t even notice the baby getting gently lifted away from him at the end of the night. Larry had taken a picture before Sac retrieved her son, the two boys had looked too adorable, Ahkmen, in his spiderman pyjamas, curls wild, cuddled up to the sleeping baby like they were brothers just put down for a nap. 

 

Larry got the distinct impression Ahkmenrah, when re-grown, was going to be mortified. Still, it was worth it. 

 

The night guard was already thinking ahead to a longer term solution to the fact that instead of having a 4000 year old GROWN mummy residing in the sarcophagus during the day they had what was distinctly and unmistakeably a child. He needed to think of something to cover the fact to any casual observer. He mentally added it to his to-do list. 

 

Today however, they had an immediate plan. 

 

Start teaching Ahkmen English. 

 

This was going to be interesting. 

 

Ahkmen woke up as soon as the magic worked once more. He sat up slowly, groggy from sleep, rubbing his bleary eyes. Good lord, the kid really was dangerously cute. 

 

_ “M-mummy?” _

“Good morning Ahkmen. Do you remember me and Nicky?”

Ahkmen startled at his voice, backing up hard suddenly very wide awake. 

_ “Ah!” _

Nicky stepped forwards, _“It’s okay, it’s all right Ahkmen, you’re safe in the god’s place. I’m Ni-Kee remember? This is my dad Larry, he’s the guardian here, he’s not going to hurt you.”_

“ _Mummy? Daddy?”_

_ “They’re not here right now but Moon-Mother is coming”  _

Ahkmen looked crushed at the knowledge his parents STILL weren’t around however he cheered a little when he heard Sac’s magic name mentioned, _“Moon-Mother?”_

_ “Yeah she’s coming to see you. You want to come say hello to her and the baby?” _

Ahkmen considered, he didn’t like this room very much but he still wasn’t sure about this guardian, he was very pale, but then again he did save him when he fell. Surely he couldn’t be too bad? Ni-Kee was nice at least. He showed him crayons. He liked crayons! There were so many colours to draw with! Not like the paints at the palace.   

 " _Yes please!”_

“ _Come on then.”_

With an effort the little Egyptian got himself out and down from his sarcophagus, Larry twitching to help all the while. 

They headed out without incident, Ahkmen happily latching onto Nicky’s hand much to the older boy’s annoyance. He still wasn’t keen on this little imposter. He was the absolute reminder that Ahk, _his_ Ahk was gone. Nicky knew he was being very unfair, it wasn’t the child’s fault really but he was only ten himself and he resented the hell out the interloper. 

They led Ahkmen to the main desk where a few of the other exhibits, including Sac, Teddy and JB were already assembled, they had thought last night about how they were going to attempt the lessons everyone agreed they should start with just gestures and flashcards given they should probably work up to showing Ahkmen language videos-they didn’t think they could handle the million and one questions he would have about the project screen- eighteen year old Ahkmenrah had been bad enough when he’d seen the screen for the first time, losing about ten years in the process and asking hundreds of questions about the screen, the projector, how it worked, who made the films, who were people in them, who invented all the technologies almost faster than Larry could answer. It had been exhausting but rather endearing seeing the usually regal and reserved pharaoh babble excitedly like a kid in a candy shop. 

 

“Cool, we’re going to teach you some English today Ahkmen.” 

 

“English?”

 

_ “Yeah the language I’m speaking right now,” _ He paused and actually flipped to English, “this is what English sounds like when it’s being spoken.” 

 

“Everyone sounds the same.”

 

“That’s because we all speak English.” 

 

“Why? If we’re in the land of the gods and I got chosen why doesn’t anyone sound like me?”

 

“Because there are many different people chosen by many different gods of many different countries.” Answered Octavius when Nicky translated Ahk’s question-Nicky himself had no idea how to answer that one. “English was chosen as the common tongue.” 

 

_ “Is it a divine language?” _ Interestingly Ahkmen switched his full attention to Octavius without batting an eyelid, responding to the general like the adult he was.

 

“No, it’s just the one we all communicate in for convenience.”

 

_ “Oh. Is there a divine language?” _

 

“How do you mean?”

 

_ “Something that the gods speak in, we’re only mortals and they know everything so do they have something they speak in?”  _ That was pretty intense to come from a small child, it show how seriously Ahkmenrah took his faith, even at that age.

 

This had got decidedly heavy decided Octavius, trying to think how best to answer.

 

“Presumably but as mortals I don’t think we’ll ever know.” 

 

_ “Why?” _

 

“The god’s need to keep a few little secrets to themselves don’t they?”

 

_ “Why?” _

 

“To keep themselves separate from us.” 

 

_ “Oh. I thought a big boat in the sky was away enough.”  _

 

“Sometimes it needs to be more.” reasoned Octavius, drawing on his own experiences of following a pantheon to try and reason with the child.

 

_ “Oh. Did they decide on _ English?”

 

“No we did.”

 

_ “Why?” _

 

“Because lots of us speak it.” 

 

_ “Who told you to?” _

 

“No one, the gods let us decide.”

 

_ “But there has to be someone in charge,”  _ insisted the child.

 

“No, we all voted together to decide.”

 

_ “What’s voting?” _

 

“When everyone gets to have their say.” Explained Octavius, ever patient.

 

_ “Why?” _

 

“Because that’s a democracy.” Added Jed.

 

_ “What’s that?” _

 

“When people decide t'do stuff as a group.” 

 

_ “Oh. Why?” _

 

“Because it’s more fair.” Nicky insisted, pressing on before the child could ask anything more, “Anyway let’s start with the basics of English.” 

 

They spent half an hour going over very simple phrases, having Nicky there was an absolute blessing. 

 

Between having him there to translate back and forth Ahkmen quickly picked up Hello, Please, Thank you, help, tired, scared, happy, crayons, cuddle, play,

 

He learned everyone’s names to varying degrees of success, now the people present could look forward to being addressed as; 

 

“Oct-tav-eeeee-uS”

 

“Je-D.”

 

“Ann-na.”

 

“Ragg-nah.”

 

“La-ree.”

 

“Att-tilll-Ah.”

 

They didn’t bother with ‘Sacagawea’ since he called her Moon-Mother anyway but when they tried to work on ‘Teddy’ when Nicky pointed to the president the little boy said ‘ _Father Bear’_ which tickled Nicky so he translated it to ‘Papa Bear.’ Before Teddy could correct the child he had a little Egyptian octopus plastered to him declaring over and over in his piping voice, “Papa bear! Papa bear!” And well, who could argue with someone who looked so happy over the fact that he had a name now to put to Moon-Mother’s Love. 

 

By the end of the second hour of practice using flash cards to associate words and phrases Ahkmen could say and understand;

 

“My name is Ahkmen.”

 

“What is your name?”

 

“I am happy.”

 

“I am tired.”

 

“I am scared.”

 

“I would like to play, please.”

 

“I would like a cuddle, please.”

 

“I would like to sleep, please.”

 

“I would like to crayon, please.”

 

“I would like Moon-Mother please.”

 

“Hello! How are you?”

 

“Are you okay?”

 

“What do you need?”

 

“What would you like to do?”

 

It was actually pretty impressive he got that much. His pronunciation wasn’t brilliant but they could at least understand what he was saying when he tried English. Not bad for two hours. Ahk really did have a gift for languages. 

 

Larry was reminded of the first few weeks with grown Ahk after he’d been released. He’d been so keen to get to know everyone, 54 years in a box had left him decidedly touch and people starved, he tried to get around everyone at the celebration party much to Larry’s amusement, clearly trying to absorb as much as possible in one night. 

 

It stopped being amusing when he came to check on Ahk before the night was done, wanting to see if he needed any help getting back into his exhibit. When Larry entered Ahk was facing his sarcophagus with the look of a condemned man. 

 

“Hey Ahk, you okay?”

 

Ahk actually jumped. “Oh, my apologies guardian, I did not see you there, I am returning to my exhibit, have no fear, you do not need to oversee me.” 

 

“I wasn’t here to oversee you man, just wanted to make sure you were okay, it’s been a busy night, you looked like you were enjoying yourself.” 

 

“I did thank you,” worry began creeping across his face, “I trust I did not overstep my place?” The words were delivered with dignity, a rhetorical statement but Larry could see the tremor laying beneath them. Ahk was scared of something. 

 

“No, no of course not.” Larry assured quickly, “If I’m honest it was nice to see you getting on with everyone, I think the guys were impressed at how good you were at soccer.” 

 

“It is a very enjoyable game.” Ahk gave a careful smile. 

 

“Yeah, one of Nicky’s favourites,” He paused, trying to get the right words, “you know, it’s okay to talk to people, don’t worry about overstepping anything, you’ve as much right to do stuff here as everyone else.” 

 

“You have my eternal gratitude Guardian of Brooklyn.” Ahk seemed genuine if a little guarded, he was still watching Larry very closely as if expecting him to make a sudden move.

 

“No problem, it must be good to see people again.” The second the words left Larry’s mouth he knew he’d said the WRONG thing. 

 

Ahk’s whole posture stiffened. “More than you can ever know.” He whispered. 

 

“Hey, buddy, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-” 

 

“It is a joy to see so many new faces,” pushed on Ahk quickly, “I wished to ensure I made use of my night of reward before I return. I hoped, I hoped I may ingratiate myself before I returned.” 

 

“You know you can pace yourself dude, people aren’t going anywhere there’s plenty of time to see them all.” 

 

“Then, I, you may, I might be freed once more?”

 

“Of course.” Like he had to say it? It was obvious!

 

“Thank you guardian. That is most benevolent of you.” Ahk gave him a slight bow, how did the guy make an incline of the head seem so damn regal? 

 

“It’s just my job.” Shrugged Larry easily.

 

“Indeed.” Ahk took a moment to process before continuing, “Do you wish me to return to my usual state of dress? I confess I rather enjoy what I am currently attired in however, I will of course act upon your wishes.” 

 

“No, just be comfortable, the bandages will take you half the night maybe just have a few on for during the day but just do what works for you.” 

 

“That is most kind of you.” 

 

If Larry had thought about it, he would have realised that Ahk was being overly formal, overly cautious with his speech however, at the time he honestly thought that was just how Ahk communicated. He had learned English in Cambridge after all. He would later learn that it was for a very different reason.

 

As it was, once they got past the whole taser thing, and the issues over sleeping, and assuring, reassuring, finally, that Larry was to be trusted, that Ahk was never going to be locked back up on Larry’s watch, Ahk began to actually, honestly relax properly. He never stopped finding new people to speak to, Larry was more than a little impressed at how quickly Ahk made friends in the museum and how much effort he put into learning the greetings and basic conversation vocabulary so he could at least politely enquire how they were in their own language. 

 

It was a good move politically speaking thought Larry, make friends fast as an insurance against being shut up again but he began to realise this wasn’t just Ahk’s insurance policy, he was genuinely curious and interested in meeting new people, finding out about all he’d missed over the years. 

 

It really shouldn’t have been a surprise when his own language began to evolve. 

 

About four weeks into his new job and getting used to the museum being, well, the museum he rounded a corner to find his son and the polite, regal, Egyptian pharaoh babbling excitedly to each about. This was nothing out of the ordinary, ever since that first night Ahk had been released and he’d ridden Rexy with Nicky the two had formed a close friendship. Larry had never actually paused to think about that decision, letting his only son ride a re-animated t-rex fossil with an ancient Egyptian ruler whom by all rights should at the very least phenomenally pissed off if not actively trying to murder them all. He’d known Ahk for about five minutes and entrusted his son’s safety to him. Huh.

 

But seeing them laughing and joking together he knew his gut instincts had been right. He still wasn’t prepared for implications though.

 

“Dude! That’s awesome!”

 

Larry dropped the bag of snacks he’d been carrying.

 

“What?!”

 

“Oh,” Ahkmenrah turned to face Larry, sobering his expression slightly, “greetings Guardian of Brooklyn, Nicky was just explaining to me the story of a new film that is currently in production.”

 

“Don’t you Guardian of Brooklyn me like everything’s normal!” cried Larry, still in a state of shock, “Since when do you use words like that?!”

 

Ahk looked suddenly contrite, “have I offended you Larry? I apologise, I did not realise I had used improper language.” He turned to Nicky looking accusing, “you said they were exclamations of excitement! Not curse words!”

 

Nicky was completely non-plussed, “They’re not curse words!” He assured the ruler before facing his father with a ‘what’s wrong Dad?’ face, “What’s the matter?”

 

“You taught the ancient Egyptian guy to say that?!”

 

“I am right here Larry.” Huffed Ahk, “What in Horus’s name is the matter Guardian? If I was not unwittingly speaking profanity what is the issue?”

 

“The issue is you sound completely wrong!”

 

“What?”

 

“You’re meant to speak British!” Larry flapped.

“I am speaking English yes, you know

that.” Ahk was clearly puzzled by Larry’s display of distress.

 

“No, I mean posh English, you’re well spoken, you don’t say things like ‘awesome’ and ‘dude’!”

 

“Well I do now, the situation called for it, language does evolve Larry.” 

 

“But it just sounds weird!” 

 

“Would you rather I uttered phrases such as this, “ _My friend, that is beneficently masterful.l”_

 

“Which means?” Larry asked with a raised eyebrow.

 

“Roughly translated?” Answered Ahk with a straight face, “Dude, that’s awesome.” He waited a beat before an impish grin broke across his face. 

 

It was such a teenager moment, the first time Ahk looked like he was actually, properly relaxing into life here. 

 

Larry couldn’t help laughing, till all three were giggling like idiots. “Alright, you got me, I won’t judge your choice of vocab from here on out, in fear of getting nothing but Egyptian from you in future!”

 

Ahk gave him a short bow, still grinning happily, pleased that his flippancy had been rewarded with amusement rather than punished. He was still testing the ropes. 

 

“What film was it anyway?” 

 

“Transformers.”

 

Larry beamed, “Dude, that IS awesome.” 

 

They collapsed into giggles once more. 

 

The memory of that, how Ahk gradually became part of the museum family as himself, on his own merit rather than because of his title and past status made what was happening now all the more painful. 

 

It was having to start from scratch with him all over again. 

 

With a child version who had no reason to trust any of them. 

 

And yet. 

 

Ahk’s personality, his core being, was clearly on display here, undisguised by years of training and experience. They were getting to see what Ahkmenrah was like at his very heart. It was a privilege and it was terrifying. 

 

They had a lot of responsibility. 

 

“Hello, my name is Ahkmen, I would like a cuddle please.” 

 

‘Hell-oh Ahkmen, my nam-me is Attila.’ With that the Hun picked up the small child, who snuggled against Attila happily, the war leader wrapping his arms about him as though this was something they did every day. 

 

Larry was lost for words on two counts. 

 

On the one hand, who knew Ahkmenrah was at heart so damn affectionate? Fair enough he was a kid right now and all children are more affectionate than adults but still, the fact that he, Ahkmen, was actively seeking physical affection from someone other than Moon-Sacagawea, he corrected himself, was pretty surprising. The fact he was seeking it from Attila was off the chart. 

 

Then again, considered Larry, Attila was clearly a warrior and with colouring closer to what Ahkmen recognised as ‘safe’ rather than Ragnar who, whilst another warrior, a guard, Larry realised, was as fair skinned as the night guard himself. 

 

What Larry was still reeling from was the fact that Attila, ATTILA spoke that sentence in English, no fuss, no ceremony. He knew the guy was intelligent but that was impressive. He didn’t have the benefit of direct translation. 

 

Larry felt like a light bulb had been switched on. 

 

This could be the start of something seriously awesome, they had a golden opportunity now to link the museum even more closely. What if instead of just teaching Ahkmen, they offered English lessons to the whole of the museum? 

 

He looked around, beaming at his friends, ‘what if’ indeed. 

 

It was surprisingly painless to organise. English lessons happened every evening, beginning the second hour after sundown and lasting till everyone was bored or tired. Mostly, everyone stuck out two hours per night on average which was fair enough, English wasn’t the easiest language to grasp. 

 

With the efforts of Larry himself, Sacagawea, Teddy, Anna, Martha, Octavius, Lewis, Clark and Nicky everyone who was keen to learn began to understand the basics by the end of the first week. People practiced with each other, using helpful links to other languages where they could, Octavius in particular enjoying his role of teacher, explaining the Latin roots of the English language with Jed on hand to keep him was waxing too lyrically about origins of speech. 

 

All in all, after the first week of language lessons it was fair to say that everyone had made some pretty impressive progress. Ahkmen in particular. 

 

They might have been saddled with a tiny Egyptian child unexpectedly but Larry couldn’t help but be pleased that at least this being a bi-product on their enforced month-long baby sit. This, the museum communicating even more freely than before was certainly something Larry could live with. 

 

Now just to survive the rest of the chaos that surrounded them. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

%MCEPASTEBIN%


	2. Bows, Bridges and Chocolate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first week of having Ahkmen in the museum instead of Ahkmenrah reveals some surprising truths and a certain younger Daley addresses some of his issues over the whole situation...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my lovely readers! 
> 
> I am so sorry you’ve had to wait an extra week for an update, I’ve been horribly busy with work and I am finally going to be moving into a new house so it’s all been rather hectic at my end and will continue to be for the next month :( I’m very sorry you’re having to wait so long but please carry on being as patient and lovely as you are, I promise I will never abandon this story! This chapter is extra-long to make up for the wait!
> 
> Thank you so much for all the kind comments and kudos, I read every single one and you never fail to make my day so thank you, you’re really keeping me going! 
> 
> To all of you lovely readers who are missing grown up Ahk, I promise he WILL return however, I've got a lot to do with little Ahk first otherwise my story down the line won't work out at all, he’s going to kick-start a lot of vital plot points! So please bear with me, I promise it's worth it! (we're not even half way through of what I've planned out for this universe! I've got this universe's take on NATM2 with adult Ahk for a start!) But Grown-up Ahk will appear here and there in flashbacks for all of you who were wondering what on earth happened in his first six weeks of freedom before 'A Long Awaited Treasure' took place! Thanks so much for reading!
> 
> I really hope you enjoy this chapter, let me know what you think! :)

Larry knew he’d been pretty damn lucky this week. It could have gone so badly wrong and yet, as it was nothing was, for once, on fire, everyone was getting along and they had yet to traumatise their newest addition. 

Children really were resilient it turned out. 

Ahkmen had adapted fairly well to life in the museum, he was endlessly curious, interested in everything and fascinated by pretty the entire contents of the building. 

Now he was getting to grips with English it was only getting easier to communicate with him. 

They’d very quickly worked out a morning/evening routine which the child took to fairly easily. 

 

One of the exhibits or Larry (usually both) would make it to Ahk’s room as soon as humanly possible, Ahkmen having promised to wait for a grown up to come for him when he woke up. They would then take him to the nearest bathroom and help him wash his face and brush his teeth since he complained he felt ‘icky’ when he woke up of a morning (Apparently it was a word that worked in almost every language.), they weren’t sure if this was because Ahkmen was once human and thus effected differently by the tablet or it was just a force of habit from his routine at the palace but either way Larry picked him up a toothbrush and washcloth much to the child’s joy.

 

Larry had also picked up some normal children’s clothes for the tiny pharaoh, initially just t-shirts and a pair of dungarees which had the added advantage of giving everything something grab hold of when the child was dashing about excitedly. It was the little red sneakers Ahkmen was most enamoured of, sitting patiently watching Teddy keenly whilst he tied up the laces.

 

Learning how to do bows had kept the child happily occupied for the best part of two hours.

 

Larry spent the rest of week spotting bows tied in the most unlikely of places.

 

Most notably had been in Ragnar’s hair and beard.

 

Ahkmen after a few days had begun to relax around the paler exhibits and quickly acted on his fascination with the Viking warlord.

 

“Why do you grow gold from your face?”

 

Ragnar looked down in surprise at the piping little voice. He hadn’t heard the child, ‘Ahkmen’ he reminded himself, approach. He stopped polishing Gunnuld to focus on the little boy, he had been aware that the pharaoh possessed an impressive stare but reduced to his child-form the pharaoh’s eyes seemed to make up half of his face.

It was hard to resist any question when asked by those eyes even if he didn’t understand most of it, English was not coming easily to him yet however, the child was pointing as he spoke so he could guess the gist.

 

He looked so innocent for a change, it was nice not to see the weight of world behind that stare for once. Ragnar found himself willing to indulge the child, his adult self rarely asked anything of him. It didn’t mean he wouldn’t have any fun though. 

 

“Gold?” He questioned knowingly. 

 

“Yes, your face has gold growing out of it. Why?”

 

“Why do you head have Jet grow _out of_ it?” Countered Ragnar

 

“Jet?” The child reached up to grab his curls. “I don’t, it’s just hair!”

 

“So is mine.” 

 

“Really?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Can I feel?”

 

Ragnar laughed heartily, he reminded him of Snorri at that age, everything was who? What? When and WHY?’ He sobered for a moment, he didn’t often let himself think of his family, he, unlike the others had long since lost them even before their presence in the museum had severed bonds. Siguld and Snorri had been lost to a raid, his village burned whilst he and the others were away at the behest of their theign. He’d since foresworn the touch of another, unwilling to risk the horror again. When he became a lord in his own right he ensured all villages were protected at all times, even during festivals and their own raiding voyages. He always made sure they had enough protection.

 

The last thing he remembered was sailing with his men for fabled new world before waking in the museum. Part of him wondered if he ever got there. It had taken him 54 years but he’d begun to finally relax and accept that they were in fact safe and there were no enemy raiders likely to destroy his friends here, not since everyone had proven themselves so capable at the last intrusion. He was safe to care again.

 

Ragnar snapped himself out of his reverie. 

 

“Please?” implored the little boy.

 

How could he deny such a heartfelt request?

 

“As you wish _ingot.”_ He reached down and picked the tiny child up, Ahkmen settled happily in Ragnar’s arms, immediately little fingers were buried in his long golden braids. 

 

“It’s hair!”

 

_ “Did I not say as much?”  _

 

Why can’t you talk English lots?

 

“I am learn-ning.” Explained the Viking gruffly, unable to hide his annoyance at finding English so difficult to understand.

 

“So am I. What’s your language?” 

 

_ “Norse.”  _

 

_ “Norse?”  _ Ahkmen tried to copy.

 

“Yes.”

 

“Where do you come from?”

 

Ragnar had seen enough maps to know the vast distance between Ahkmenrah’s land and his own, he’d travelled almost as far himself during his first life, heard tell of those who’d travelled to countries where the sun blazed all day and they built palaces of gilded marble and riches flowed like mead. He’d been tempted to see such things himself but the pull of a new, untouched world drew him harder. 

 

“I come from north, long way from you.” 

 

“Is that why you’re so pale? You don’t get the sun?”

 

“No little one, _we are made in the image of our gods just as you are_.”

 

“How many are there?”

 

“Many, _I do not have the words to tell you yet. But I will.”_

 

“Oh. Are all your people golden like you?”

 

“Some. Not all.” 

 

“Does everyone have these?” He tugged gently on Ragnar’s beard for emphasis. 

 

“No, only the men.” 

 

“No ladies?” questioned he little boy, he’d never seen anyone with quite as much hair as Ragnar and his men, he could readily believe that the _Norse_ ladies were as hairy as the men.

 

Ragnar barked in laughter. “No, _usually not.”_

 

“Oh. Why?”

 

“Only men little one. _Ladies are too pretty to hide their faces.”_

 

“What’s under it?”

 

“My face.” 

 

“Really?” The child clearly didn’t believe him.

 

“Yes.”

 

Ahkmen seemed unconvinced and plunged his fingers into Ragnar’s glorious beard determined to see if what the golden warrior said was true. 

 

Which was exactly how Anna found them both a moment later. 

 

“Having fun are we?”

 

“This is not what it looks like!” 

 

“I’m finding Ragnar’s face!” Chirped Ahkmen happily.

 

The Viking sighed in defeat. “It is exactly what it looks like.” 

 

Anna couldn’t hide her giggles. 

 

“Come now Ahkmen, you’ve untidied all of Ragnar’s braids! We shall have to fix them for him. So long as Ragnar doesn’t mind?”

 

Ragnar’s eyes widened, it was a rather intimate thing she was suggesting but then again, she was not from his culture, she couldn’t know. Maybe it was customary for her? Either way he couldn’t deny wanting to feel her hands on him, in friendship or otherwise. 

 

“No, I would like help, _your ever skilled hands are always a blessing silver fingers_.”

 

“What does that mean?”

 

“Too many words _ingot_.” Smiled Ragnar. 

 

As it was, Anna was almost a head shorter than him and Ahkmen barely reached the top of his thigh so he did the best thing he could and sat down allowing them both easier access. Ahkmen clambered happily into his lap fingers already back in his impressive beard. Anna however took a moment to appreciate the sight. Ragnar really did have the most incredible blue eyes, like the sky on a summer’s day, clear and uncomplicated but could storm fiercely with little warning. 

 

He was a good friend to her, granted they didn’t converse with words all that much, English was a hard creature to wrestle and Ragnar’s hands were coated in oil rather than chalk but he persevered for the museum. She didn’t realise his efforts had a particular aim in sight. Anna knew they still spoke fluently despite the language barrier, no one had ever understood her mood and feelings quite so well as him, they’d grown more in-tune as time had worn on, ever since Larry had taken over guardianship. To have someone like that, like him meant the world to her. Their friendship was something she would cherish forever and she would rather be sun-dust than risk ruining it. 

 

Which was why she tried her hardest not to look too closely, or let her fingers linger too long whilst she worked the intricate plaits. She had offered her help in friendship. And friendship only. Why was his beard so soft?

 

“I’ve done a bow!” Ahkmen chirped happily, showing the sloppily tied strands of actual beard. 

 

Anna and Ragnar shared a look that spoke volumes. 

 

Ragnar resigned, Anna trying hard not to giggle, both highly amused (and not a little bit grateful for the break in the sudden tension that had formed) 

 

A look of pure mischief bloomed in Anna’s eyes. 

 

Ragnar knew in his heart of hearts that he was utterly doomed. 

 

He found he didn’t care all that much. 

 

“That’s nice Ahkmen but I think bows work better in ribbon. I know how about I do the plaiting and you tie nice bows on the end? I’ve got lots of pretty ribbons with me.” 

 

Raganr glared at the Dutch woman

 

/I hate you/ he declared with his blue stare.

 

/No you don’t besides you will look pretty with ribbons/

 

/You are a harridan!/

 

/I know but you put up with me/

 

/Someone has to/

 

/I’m glad it’s you/

 

They shared a small smile. 

 

“What ribbons do you have?” Piped up Ahkmen. 

 

Anna smiled down at the eager little boy, though only Ragnar caught the glint of wickedness. He would have to return this no doubt humiliating favour in kind. And soon. It would be fun to plot. 

 

“I have lots Ahkmen, choose the ones you think are the prettiest.” 

 

Which is why when Larry saw the Norse lord later he had lovely and enthusiastically tied multicoloured bows in his beard. 

 

A Viking with rainbow bows in his beard. 

 

Larry had officially seen it all. 

 

Look what I did for Ragnar!” Beamed Ahkmen from where he was riding Ragnar’s shoulders, “He’s all pretty!”

 

Larry gauged Ragnar’s face before agreeing, the warlord was not looking particularly murderous. Indeed, he actually looked fairly amused. 

 

“Yup, very pretty Ahkmen.” 

 

“Anna helped!”

 

“Oh did she?”

 

_ “She did guardian. Don’t worry, she’ll get her own chance to be pretty, have no fear.”  _

 

Larry didn’t understand a word Ragnar had just said but he figured Anna should probably be quite worried given the look on his face. 

 

Larry was also pretty astounded at Ahkmen’s language skills. 

 

By the end of the week when Ahkmen was decorating Ragnar he’d really got to grips with basic English. It probably helped that so many people were willing to talk with him and help him when he got stuck. He was a ridiculously cute kid after all. 

 

Plus, he had a way of making you feel like you were the best human on the planet for helping so there was that too. 

 

Although, just because he picked it up quickly didn’t mean it had all been plain sailing, some words they hadn’t practiced simply because no one thought they’d be relevant. 

 

Larry and the others had been in for a shock three days into caring for their new charge. 

 

“ _I’m hungry_.” 

 

“What is it Ahkmen?” The kid was looking decidedly upset, at first Larry figured it was because Teddy and Sac had left Ahkmen with him for half an hour whilst they had to tend to other issues, there was something going on with one the other Native American tribes at the museum and they wanted Sac and Teddy’s help. 

 

“Please, _I’m hungry_.” 

 

“I don’t understand.” Larry was watching Ahkmen get more upset, desperately trying to figure out just what the matter was. Was it him? Was he scaring him?

 

“I want _something to eat_ please.” 

 

“Ahkmen, what do you want? I don’t-”

 

“I, please, bitey.” 

 

“bitey?!” What the hell did that mean? Was he scared of being bitten by something? No, Nala was kind to him, she liked him. 

 

_ “I’m hungry! _ Please! _My tummy hurts!”_ The little boy began to cry.

 

“Ahkmen, please buddy, what’s wrong?”

 

“ _Have I been bad?! I tried to be good! I’m sorry! I’m hungry! I didn’t mean to be bad! My tummy hurts!”_ At which point the child sat down, burying his face in his hands and sobbed. 

 

Oh this was a disaster! He’d only had him twenty minutes!

 

Larry picked him up without a second thought, Dad instincts in overdrive, “hey little buddy what’s the matter?” The tiny pharaoh sobbed harder. 

 

_ “I waited and waited but no one’s called me into dinner! Was I bad? Don’t I get dinner here for being bad like the servant children? I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it! I just want to eat! I thought I was being good and waiting like mummy says to be polite but it’s been a long time and my tummy hurts and I’ve slept and slept and I’m still hungry! I’m sorry but my tummy hurts so much!”  _

 

Larry sat the hysterical child on the desk. 

 

“Ahkmen, shhh, deep breaths buddy, can you show me what’s the matter?” He mimed as he spoke. 

 

The child, still crying, scared he was still being bad, hesitantly pointed to his stomach and then his mouth. 

 

“B-bite, bite,” he tried again, in English then gave up and flipped back to Egyptian, “ _f-fo f-food_.”

 

Holy mother of God. 

 

Ahkmen was hungry. 

 

Honest to God, starving hungry since he’d been here three days already. Well he had just failed his parenting test. The poor kid was clearly famished but was scared of telling him so. 

 

Another sick thought hit him. 

 

Ahkmen’s physicality’s were the same as Ahkmenrah’s. 

 

Ahkmen was hungry to the point he was wailing with need. He could feel that need that acutely. 

 

It stood to reason Ahkmenrah did too.   

 

Oh Larry felt horrible. What kind of friend, what kind of guardian was he to let someone suffer like that? How had he not realised. 

 

Wait. THAT was where his biscuits kept disappearing to!

 

_ “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to be bad!”  _ Sobbed the little boy _, “Can I have something to eat_ please _?! I’ll be good I promise!”_

 

“Oh, hey buddy, Ahkmen, it’s okay, come let’s get you fed”.

 

He picked up the tiny weeping child carrying him easily to the kitchen. Putting Ahkmen down on one of the chairs he knelt to look at the child face to face. “Ahkmen, look at me, it’s okay, you’re not bad and I am going to feed you okay?” He very carefully wiped away the tears, hugging the little boy trying to reassure him that he’d done nothing wrong. 

 

Larry quickly grabbed his own sandwiches, his midnight snack as Nicky affectionately called it and put it in front of the child, as well as an apple and an oat bar he found in a quick search of the cupboards. 

 

Ahkmen looked apprehensively at the offerings. 

 

Oh of course, he’d never seen sandwiches before! Larry picked up one, mimed eating and handed it to the child. 

 

Ahkmen took it very gingerly, he sniffed it cautiously before hunger won out over scepticism. The child bit into the soft bread and his face lit up. 

 

Thank god he’d only made them with cheese and ham as fillings today, nice and simple for the small boy. Ahkmen clearly approved, eating with concentrated enjoyment. 

 

Once Larry was certain Ahkmen was eating happily, fully focused on that task alone he quietly stepped outside the kitchen to try and get his emotions in order. 

 

Ahkmen got hungry. 

 

Ahkmenrah got hungry. 

 

Ahkmen got hungry enough in three days that he began to cry, begging for food in pure desperation. 

 

Ahkmenrah had been with them, freed, for six months. Even if the tablet reset him every night so that he couldn’t starve to death, he was STILL hungry, still needed or felt like he needed to eat. He FELT hunger. And Larry hadn’t noticed. 

 

Larry didn’t know, Ahk hadn’t told any of them. Ahk hadn’t trusted them enough to share this most basic of needs.

 

And Larry HADN’T NOTICED. 

 

He’d failed Ahk in the worst way. 

 

The Night Guard had to stifle a sob. He couldn’t believe he’d let Ahk down so badly. 

 

He was still trying to compose himself when Teddy rounded the corner. 

 

“Lawrence? Good Lord! What on earth is the matter?!” Teddy was immediately worried, Ahkmen wasn’t anyway to be seen. 

 

“Ahkmen, Ahk, he-” Larry couldn’t finish the sentence, he was too ashamed. 

 

Teddy took Larry by the shoulders forcing the younger man to look straight at him, “Lawrence!” Prompted the president in a no nonsense tone, fear fuelling him, “what has happened? Is he alright? Do we need to find him or tend to him or-”

 

“He gets hungry!”

 

Teddy was non-plussed for a moment before the weight of that statement sunk in. 

 

“Oh my goodness”. Teddy actually looked like he was made of wax for a moment, so horrified by the news. 

 

“He needs, well, feels like he needs to eat! He was crying Teddy! Crying with hunger! If he can feel that bad after three days then-”

 

Teddy tried to reassure him, “Lawrence you couldn’t have known.” 

 

“I should have!” Larry countered frantically, “I’m supposed to look after you guys!”

 

“But the rest of us aren’t effected by that particular requirement, it’s hardly the norm around here.” 

 

“But that doesn’t make it okay!”

 

“No, no it doesn’t but Ahkmenrah is an adult, a young adult granted but an adult all the same. He was perfectly capable of asking you for help and he didn’t. You can’t take all the blame here my boy.” 

 

“But why wouldn’t he tell me something like that?”

 

“My best guess? Pride probably, at least in part and knowing him as well as I did, I’m sure he would not have liked to mark himself out a separate from the rest of us, he spent a long time trying to be counted as one of the exhibits, be part of the crowd and accepted, admitting he had different needs I’m sure would have undermined that aim.”  

 

Larry’s eyes widened at Teddy’s insight, the president was probably right knowing Ahk and yet he couldn’t let it rest, “But I should-

 

“No Lawrence,” stated Teddy firmly, “you can’t do everything, lord knows you try your best but you simply can’t, you are not a mind reader. The important thing is Ahkmen is now provided for and looked after which I like to think we’re all doing a rather good job so far, so please, just focus on the present. When our Pharaoh returns we can have a long chat about personal requirements until then, we must focus on the task at hand.” 

 

Larry looked so very miserable for a moment, his eyes swimming with unshed tears. Teddy did the only thing he could and wrapped the night guard in a solid reaffirming hug. “Don’t worry so much my boy,” consoled Teddy gently, “we all have a responsibility to each other, we all missed the signs alongside you and we will address this when we can. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

 

With a manly pat on the back he released the night guard.

 

Larry swallowed hard, reeling from the impact Sacagawea and family responsibilities had had on the once overly bombastic president. 

 

“Thanks Teddy, I really appreciate it.” 

 

“You’re most welcome my boy,” Teddy’s blue eyes were warm and kind, “now carry on with our Ahkmen, Sacagawea and I shall be back soon to take him off for bed, we’re finished with the tribe now,  Sacagawea just wanted to take advantage of a little free time, she’d been looking for a new story to read to him tonight.” 

 

“Good, I don’t think he can get enough of storytime right now, I must have heard Goldilocks and the three bears four times this evening, mostly in Egyptian.” 

 

Teddy chuckled, “what can I say, He assumed the bears were myself, Sacagawea and Jean-Baptiste.” 

 

“Yeah, and that Anna was Goldilocks!”

 

Children have the most wonderful imaginations. 

 

“Yeah, they really do, speaking of, best get back to that one. See you soon, thanks again.” 

 

“You’re welcome Lawrence.” 

 

Teddy headed off to tell Sac about the success of last night whilst Larry returned to Ahkmen who was avidly devouring the apple he left him, the sandwiches long since swallowed. 

 

“This is really good!” Grinned Ahkmen with butter on his cheek and a piece of apple in his hair. 

 

“I’m glad Ahkmen.” 

 

“Thank you!” 

 

“No problem, no problem at all.” 

 

It was an oddly portentous turn of phrase, Larry was indeed lucky, there wasn’t really a problem till the following weekend.   

 

Then there was a PROBLEM. 

 

It was the weekend so course Nicky was with them, he’d actually been with them all week, Erica having asked Larry to keep Nicky that week since her mother was only going to get out of hospital on the Friday and still needed settling back into her own house over the weekend. Don was still away. 

 

Nicky had been happy enough once he’d been assured and reassured that his Grandma Jane was in fact on the mend and even loved her get well card. The only thing that had been a problem there was Ahkmen. Or rather, Nicky’s rather obvious dislike of the child. As soon as the night’s English lesson was over the night guard’s son was off like a rocket preferring to get as far away from Ahkmen as possible to remove the constant reminder that his best friend was still missing. Larry couldn’t blame Nicky really, it was a lot to handle for a ten year old though he wished his son wasn’t as obvious in his dislike. 

 

Ahkmen either didn’t notice or didn’t care. He absolutely adored Nicky and sought him out whenever he could. Which usually posed little trouble since the rest of the exhibits were quite happy to keep the two of them apart, distracting Ahkmen mainly through playing or crayoning with him. 

 

Larry still wasn’t getting over the image anytime soon of half the civil war soldiers sat happily drawing and colouring in with the tiny pharaoh, bayonets long since forgotten. It had been fascinating to see how unperturbed Ahkmen had been about faceless soldiers, after sitting in the lap of one and curiously tracing the outlines of cloth features with the gesture being returned by the infantryman they had seemingly accepted each other. Apparently mutual face stroking was a thing for trust? Who knew anymore? 

 

Larry certainly didn’t. 

 

But similar things kept happening, apparently ‘Ahkmen’ and ‘Tactile’ were interchangeable words. Attila was already a favourite with the rest of the Huns following closely, they happily kept him amused playing piggy back rides. (Edil and Uruk were particularly game for racing each other). Sir William and his men acted out the tale of St George and the Dragon to a delighted Ahkmen who’d never heard any knights and dragons stories before and was completely enchanted. 

 

The women of the craft room of course loved him and sat with him to teach him how to knit showing endless patience with both the hundreds of questions that poured out of his mouth and fixing the seemingly unending mistakes the over-eager child made with the scarf they were trying to get him set on. Anything to keep him out of mischief for five minutes since he wanted to see everything at once.

 

Ahkmen loved all and every scrap of attention he got, cuddling up to anyone who would let him. 

 

He was a remarkably sweet child and worryingly well behaved. He’d only had one tantrum that had lasted all of ten minutes, flying into a rage of stomping feet when he didn’t want to go to bed on his second night. 

 

Sacagawea had calmly picked him up and put him in Larry’s office closing the door whilst explaining he could come out again when he stopped being so silly. 

 

She absolutely refused to allow him to get away with any bratty behaviour even if he did rather have more reason than most to get hysterical. She was not about to allow him to think he could get his own way by screaming, that way led to awfulness, she knew from her own tribe and the people of Louisville. 

 

Ahkmen was naturally a well behaved child and apparently all it needed was that one display of parental authority. He stopped trying to bash the door open after roughly two minutes, he stopped pulling on the door after four and stopped screaming after six. Sacagawea opened the door after ten to see a miserable Ahkmen sat on the floor looking very sorry indeed. 

 

“Are you going to be a good boy now?”

 

“Yes Moon-Mother.” He sniffed. 

 

“What do you say?” She prompted.

 

“I’m sorry!” He answered immediately. 

 

“What for?”

 

“I didn’t go to bed when you asked and I got all screamy! I didn’t mean to! I’m sorry. It’s unbecoming for a prince to make a fuss like that. I won’t do it again.” 

 

Sacagawea marvelled at the language of the child, the fact that not only had he learned those words but that he put them into such a phrase, yet another reminder of Ahkmenrah’s noble origins, he really was taught from birth. She was beginning to appreciate all the more how relaxed the grown Pharaoh had become, it had been quite the undiscovered honour. “It’s alright.” She spoke aloud, “I forgive you and I still love you.” She confirmed the all-important issue, knowing instinctively that would be the thing most of the child’s mind. She opened her arms and the little boy threw himself into her embrace with a short cry. 

 

“I’m sorry!”

 

“I know little moon, I know, you’ve said you’re sorry and you won’t do it again and now you’re forgiven.” She kissed him for good measure. “Now Ahkmen, next time you don’t want to do something, you need to tell me you don’t want to do it and why. Do you understand me?”

 

“Yes Moon-Mother.”

 

“That’s my good little moon. Good boy.” 

 

“Moon-Mother?”

 

“Yes?” 

 

“Thank you for not hitting me when I was bad.” 

 

Sac’s heart dropped into her moccasins. She placed her hands on his shoulders, gripping him gently but firmly making sure he was looking directly at her. 

 

“Ahkmen, I will never hit you, even if you’ve been bad. If you’re bad you’ll be punished by not being able to play with people and you’ll have to sit on your own but I will not hit you. Do you understand me?” 

 

“Y-yes.” He hiccupped, the crying catching up with him. 

 

“Good. Now come on, it’s bed time.” 

 

Unsurprisingly the child put up no resistance, listening intently at the stories read to him at bedtime even if he didn’t understand all the words.  

 

So yeah, it could have been much worse and if he were honest, Larry was actually okay with having his son keep his distance from the tiny pharaoh, after all, he didn’t want his son upset any more than he already was. 

 

But as with most cases in the museum, the universe was against him. Big Time. 

 

Someone or something had set off the blue whale. Which meant the rest of the Sealife room was in the process of flipping out big time, the creatures trying to smash their way clear of the glass to free themselves away from the awful noise. The whale himself was thrashing fit to burst to the point Larry thought the whole building was going to come down around them. 

 

“Nicky, Nicky I need you to take Ahkmen.” 

 

“What?” The child was horrified, “Why?!”

 

“You hear that noise? That’s the blue whale having the freak out to end all freak outs. I know you don’t want to be around him, I know, but I have literally no else to ask, we’re all having to handle this one. I should be an hour tops, just crayon with him or something, I’m sorry pal, I am but I am slightly concerned the whole building is going to come down around us.”

 

Nicky couldn’t deny the sounds coming from the Sealife room were actually terrifying however, he STILL didn’t want anything to do with the little imposter. It wasn’t fair!

 

“But!”

 

“Nicky,” Larry turned very serious, “Ahkmen right now is as human as you and me, there’s only one set of ear plugs plus there is no way we can let him near that chaos. Please buddy, I need you to be my guy right now.” 

 

His father really wasn’t messing around. There was only one thing Nicky could say. 

 

“Sure thing Dad, I’ll take him to the mineral room, it’s safe there.” 

 

Larry hugged his boy in relief, pressing a quick kiss to his dark head. 

 

“Thanks pal, I owe you.” 

 

Within ten seconds Nicky had a tiny Egyptian attached to him. 

 

Urgh.

 

The things he did for his dad. 

 

“Nice to see you too Ahkmen, come on, I’ve got something to show you.” 

 

“Something to show me? Is it nice? Is it exciting? What is it? What’s all the noise?”

 

“Just come on and you’ll see. Don’t worry about the noise, it’s just a whale.” 

 

“What’s a wah-ale?”

 

“A big fish that lives in the sea.” Nicky was so not about to explain the differences between fish and mammals.

 

“Like the red sea?”

 

“No.” 

 

“But-” 

 

“Just come on!” Nicky took the little boy’s hand and pulled him along, taking him as far away from the Sealife room as possible. 

 

He didn’t stop till they reached the mineral room. 

 

“What are we going to do? Can we play?” He flipped into Egyptian in his excitement, “ _Look at the pretty rocks! They’re so sparkly! It’s like the treasury jewels but nicer! Is this where they come from? What’s this one? What’s that one? What this one’s name? I’ve not seen this one before! Do crystals come in all colours? How many colours are there?”_

 

“Ahkmen stop!” Nicky couldn’t hear himself think, “Just stop!” He yelled.

 

The small child flinched then froze. He’d talked too much again. He was going to be hit. This was why Kah and Nicky didn’t like him. He talked too much. Kah had told him over and over he only liked him when he was still and quiet. 

 

“Sorry.” The little boy offered in a small voice, drooping in shame.

 

Nicky sighed. Great, now the kid was miserable. He was a rotten excuse for an older brother. It was a good job he was an only child, he would suck if he really had to deal with a little brother or sister. 

 

“Look, just, just sit down okay? I’ve got something for you it listen to.” 

 

“Listen?” Asked the little boy, clearly trying to not to let the other hundreds of questions spill out of his mouth. 

 

“Yeah, just sit down here and listen.” Nicky pulled out his ipod, a gift from Don a few months ago. 

 

It was one of his favourite things, Nicky loved music, he’d inherited an interesting mix of pop and classical from his mom, classic rock and 80’s power metal from his dad and a surprising amount of indie music from Don.  

 

But his favourite thing? Finding new music to share with Ahk. 

 

Ahkmenrah, _his_ Ahkmenrah, loved music as much as Nicky did and wanted to catch up on the roughly 4000 years he’d missed out on. It had been an adventure for the pair of them and Nicky had loved nothing more than to sit quietly with Ahk in the flower room, just the two of them and listen to all the new sounds he’d downloaded. Ahk had known a little bit about classic music from his time at Cambridge, excitedly having explained what a gramophone was which started their whole music listening project off. Nicky and Ahk had had to look up the gramo-thing in one of his dad’s history books. That had been too funny. 

 

“Nicky! Look I’ve found it!” exclaimed Ahk excitedly. 

 

“Found what?” Nicky was already looking at something else in another book. 

 

“The musical device I was telling you about!”

 

“The gamble phone?”

 

“Grammophone! It was a marvellous device! It could play the recordings of-”

 

“Orchestras and symphonies and it was the most awesome thing ever.” Nicky rolled his eyes, “I know dude. You told me already, twice.” 

 

“Well excuse my excitement,” Huffed Ahk, “it made my time in England a fraction more tolerable but if you don’t even want to see then-”

 

“Of course I do!” Nicky grinned, “I just wanted to wind you up!”

 

“Then we should get you one of these!” Countered Ahk immediately, “They required it, at least the one in Cambridge did.”

 

He shoved the book in Nicky’s face, the picture showing a gramophone with a large brass horn and a crank lever at the front.  

 

“Smart ass.” 

 

Ahk huffed once more to cover his amusement, “I prefer ‘wise ass’, wisdom is hard won you know.” Ahk managed the regal haughtiness for all of three seconds before Nicky hit him lightly in the shoulder 

 

“Dude!”

 

A huge grin split Ahk’s face, “Just look Nicky!” And Nicky did, his enthusiasm was just so infectious. It looked about as weird as he’d thought given Ahk’s description. A grin spread over Nicky’s face, Ahk was going to flip when he showed him what Don had given him for managing to finish the semester with a 4.0 (which was in no small part down to Ahk’s tutorledge to be fair) then he hit on a second idea, he should show Ahk the evolution of music players and then the music itself! That would be awesome and they’d both learn something! Ahk knew about pop music already and loved it, dancing like a dork happily when they had a party but there was so much more out there!

 

They spent the rest of the evening going through the book, showing the different formats. Ahk was enchanted, utterly fascinated by the idea that there were increasingly technological ways to carry recordings of your favourite music to listen to whenever you required it. He remembered his parents and later himself having to requests his favourite musicians to assemble and play, it took a lot of planning in his court to get to listen to all his favourite pieces in one evening. He was rather jealous of Nicky advantage. 

 

Which was nothing compared to the sheer awe he felt the next night when Nicky came to him, grinning for ear to ear and promised to show him something special. 

 

He wasn’t disappointed. 

 

“I have got for you the history of music!” 

 

Ahk looked about curiously, “I don’t see a book.” 

 

“You can’t read about it! I’ve got it here, we’re going to listen to the best of what I can find, so I got stuff that’s kinda replica stuff from Ancient Greece and Medieval England and then we got classical music, I got some of the most famous stuff, um, Bach, and Beethoven and Mozart and then there’s these guys Vi-Vivaldi and Holtz then we got some Jazz and Blues and Rock and Roll. I got some Beatles and Elvis Presley ‘cause apparently everyone has to know who he is and then classic rock too which is cool, Dad sings them a lot and we have some hair metal and power cords and we got some modern pop to finish.” 

 

Ahk was sat with his mouth hanging open. 

 

“I-”

 

“That’s not everything,” explained the boy hurriedly, “sorry, it’s just stuff I know right now, I figured we could look things up together? I mean I have no idea what music is listened to round the world, I only the English rock ‘cause of Dad and-”

 

“You, you did this, all of this for me?”

 

“Yeah, of course! You’re my bro! And you love music, you should have seen your face just learning about stuff that plays it!” 

 

“And you have one of those modern devices?”

 

“Yes I do! Don gave it to me for getting all A’s in my last tests, and since you helped me get those A’s it’s only fair you get to enjoy the benefits too!”

 

Ahk was speechless. Opting to hug the boy instead to show his gratitude. 

 

They spent the whole night listening to what Nicky had compiled.  

 

Ahk had been spellbound. 

 

The music that flowed from Nicky’s ipod was magical, he almost recognised the first pieces from Greece, apparently played on instruments not entirely dissimilar from the ones he’d listened to in his own court. The medieval music was something else though. Ahk loved the songs, they sounded beautiful, unearthly. One, Scarborough Fair moved him to tears, when Nicky asked he said it was all about impossible longing and he knew all about that. Nicky didn’t press him, he didn’t even know what to say to that so he just moved on with the selection. Ahk liked Greensleeves thinking it peaceful whereas the classical pieces he utterly adored. 

 

“They’re so grandiose! It’s incredible!” 

 

Ahk’s eyes were wide and bright, practically glowing blue in his excitement (Nicky had noticed that Ahk’s eyes looked different depending on his mood, blue and green were definitely the best colours, usually blue meant happy and green meant excited) “It’s like being surrounded in a landscape!” He exclaimed joyfully, “How many people are in these orchestra’s? It sounds like thousands!” 

 

“I have no idea dude, it’s a whole bunch, there’s always loads on TV when there’s a big performance.” 

 

Ahk turned to face Nicky looking astounded, “You mean this still happens?!”

 

“Oh yeah,” The boy shrugged, “mom really likes the New York Philharmonic play.” 

 

“Could we see them?”

 

“Um, I don’t know, they’re like, super expensive.” 

 

“Well that’s no-” He cut himself off, it wouldn’t have been a problem were he still actually in power rather than just magically re-animated, allowed to roam the hallowed halls of the museum of natural history at the behest of its (admittedly very kind hearted) night guard. 

 

Sometimes a reality check, in the words of Nicky, ‘sucked.’

 

“Oh,” he deflated. 

 

Nicky tried to save the situation, he never like seeing Ahk upset, especially not over stuff they couldn’t really fix. “Well,” The child began in earnest, “just because we can’t see them live doesn’t mean we can’t see them at all. We could watch them on TV, they usually show a performance around Christmas time and sometimes in the summer too! I can ask Dad to record stuff AND there’ll be stuff on YouTube we can watch! I bet there’s orchestras from all over the world online, you’d never be able to see them all live but you can still see them perform!”

 

Bless his surrogate little brother. 

 

“There’s really a whole world of performances on your inner-web?”

 

“Internet dude, and yeah, I promise, as soon as I figure out how to bypass the limits on the web here we can watch YouTube.” 

 

“I thought you said it was a net?”

 

“Same thing, people call it both, it’s all interconnected so either works.”                         

 

Ahk couldn’t fault that logic, “So that would allow us to view performances the world over?”

 

“Yeah, and they’re recorded so if there are ones you like you can watch them again and again.” 

 

“Fascinating. That sounds truly marvellous.” 

 

Nicky liked it when he could cheer up Ahk. He’d been getting to know him pretty well over the last two months, they were as close as brothers now and Nicky was determined for Ahk to get the most out of being in the museum, especially since he had such a lot to catch up on. He loved the words Ahk used when he was particularly pleased (even if he did tease him for them) he’d actually started using what he called ‘Ahkisms’ at home and at school much to the amusement and surprise of his friends, plus his mom and Don. 

 

The most notable ones had been “Marvellous! Jolly good show!” and “but that’s spectacular!” The words themselves might not have been all that notable however when Nicky uttered them out of instinct, he adopted Ahk’s accent perfectly. 

 

It was enough to stop most people in their tracks. 

 

As it was Nicky pushed on with the classical music, thoroughly enjoying all of Ahk’s responses to it; 

 

“It’s like the momentum of a maelstrom, sweeping us up into a full-blown tempest!” (In response to ‘In the hall of the mountain king’)

 

“Mars you say? Octavius’ God of War? Most fitting, you can see the battlefield ranks amassing if you close your eyes.” (When he heard ‘Mars bringer of War’ from the Planets series by Gustav Holtz)

 

“Is the ‘spring’ that happens in your climate? It sounds so fresh, it fits the ambience of this room too, like everything awakening.” (Ahk didn’t stop smiling the whole time he listened to ‘The Four Seasons’ by Vivaldi)

 

Basically it turned out Ahk was a bit of a poet at heart, Nicky listened to him avidly absorbing everything, this wasn’t something you could make light of or tease about, Ahk was so reverent, it was making Nicky think he was approaching music wrong. He really needed to listen more. 

 

The younger boy eased them into Jazz and Blues following it up with Rock n’Roll. Ahk loved it, any excuse to dance, which they did, clumsily and enthusiastically giggling all the while. He found the Beatles tremendous fun, so too Elvis Presley. 

 

“How can one man create so much music?” Ahk asked when he saw the sheer number of tracks Nicky had saved.

 

“He’s the king dude.” 

 

“Really?” Ahk was suddenly very interested, “What lineage?”

 

“No, not a real king but-”

 

Ahk face darkened, “Why is he allowed to claim royal blood then? Surely that is treason!”

 

“No dude! Not now, not really, it’s like,” Nicky scrabbled around for an explanation, “it’s a nickname, like Easter calls dad ‘dum dum’ he was really, really popular, like everyone now knows at least one of his songs and he’s been dead for 40 years.” 

 

“Oh.” Ahk considered, “So when people are referring to ‘The King’ in public they are meaning him?”

 

“Yup.” 

 

“I see.” 

 

“King of rock n’roll dude, don’t question it.” 

 

“I shan’t, it seems to be a futile endeavour and in any case, it does seem he laboured harder than everyone else to earn the title.” The Pharaoh graciously conceded.

 

“Yeah.”

 

Another though occurred to Ahk, “Is that why he was also afforded these precious ‘blue suede shoes’? Is that a sign of musical achievement? He was rather protective of them.” 

 

Nicky buried his face in his hands out of sheer exasperation, “Ahk! Dude! Just accept that most of these things don’t make all that much sense, they’re just shoes that he likes!” 

 

“But why would-”

 

“Just accept it!” He begged,  “Anyway, here’s a song that makes no sense at all. Just listen to it and don’t question it!” 

 

The beginning bars of Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ began to play. 

 

At the look on Nicky’s face Ahk kept quiet this time, this song clearly meant a lot to him. 

 

He wasn’t wrong, Nicky loved this particular track more than most, it always reminded him of his dad, for as long as her could remember his dad had always sung this to him, doing all the bits, even the crazy high pitched bits. He’d sing it when he was happy and he’d sing it when he and Nicky were having a day together, Nicky joining in and singing back. 

 

Ahk found himself swaying and tapping along until the full rock crescendo took him by surprise, he found himself really moving of his own accord, nodding his head so enthusiastically his crown came off as he threw his head forwards. Ahkmenrah caught his sacred mark of office by instinct only, a mildly sheepish expression on his face. 

 

He put it carefully on the ground, sparing a moment of reverence for it before carrying on with what he had been doing. 

 

Which was head-banging like a teenager. 

 

Nicky was watching him with a delighted grin on his face. 

 

“May we,” Ahk was bright eyed, practically vibrating with joy, “may we listen to that again?” He managed to ask with as much composure as he could muster.

 

Nicky’s grin widened. 

 

It rapidly became their favourite song to listen to, Ahk learned the words and the pair of them would sing along together like idiots. It even worked as a way to find each other in the museum.

 

It became a joke between the pair of them, whenever Nicky or Ahk began to sing that song the other would join in, it became their version of Marco Polo, Nicky would always yell, “I see a little silhouette of a man!” and Ahk would always reply “Scaramoosh! Scaramoosh! Will you do the Fandango?!” It was completely ridiculous and they both loved it. 

 

Neither of them ever bothered to find out exactly how to do the fandango but when they were feeling particularly dorky they’d do some sort of wild tango dance step that usually dissolved into a tickle fight. 

 

To watch them like that you never believed one of them once ruled over an entire civilisation. 

 

Nicky sat thinking about all the silliness he’d shared with Ahk, eyes closed, thinking about Ahk’s carefully hidden silly side, the side that enjoyed being an idiot, singing and dancing and teasing, the side he kept hidden most of the time (except for the museum-ide parties where everyone was _expected_ to be daft) but he would share freely with his little brother. 

 

He unconsciously selected it to play, before he even thought about the impact of such an action, singing along, caught up in his happy memories, “I see a little sillouette of man!”

 

“What’s a cill-oo-et?” came the confused reply.

 

Nicky opened his eyes seeing not his beloved brother but his imposter. 

 

The younger Daley missed Ahkmenrah so hard it _hurt._

 

He began to cry. 

 

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean too!” Panicked Ahkmen, horrified he’d been bad and made Nicky sad. 

 

Nicky cried harder, of course he didn’t mean to, Ahk never intended any of this to happen, he was like this because he’d saved Nicky from the tablet’s explosion of energy. He hadn’t meant for any of it to happen but it had and he wished with every fibre of his being it hadn’t and he just wanted HIS Ahk back. Why did things always have to change?! Just when he was comfortable and happy!

 

The little boy started to cry too. He didn’t know exactly what he’d done wrong but it was clearly his fault. Oh. He’d asked a question! That was the matter and he’d gone and made Nicky sad. 

 

He flung his arms around the older boy. 

 

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry I made you sad!”

 

Nicky actually wrapped his arms about the younger child, maybe it was because he  was still on some level Ahkmenrah and it was instinctive by this point or he just really needed something to hug right then. Either way his arms were wrapped about the child, face buried into a little shoulder and sobbed. 

 

Ahkmen hung on with all his tiny might, trying hard not to cry more himself. Nicky was sad! Nicky was very sad. He didn’t know what to do. Should he go and find Nicky’s daddy? The guardian-not demon? The one who gave him sand-witches? But there was a noisy wah-hle thing and the grown-ups were busy and he was a big boy now anyway, he was five whole years old and a prince of Egypt so he had to do his duty and look after people. That’s what mummy said. 

 

“What’s the matter?” He asked in an urgent voice, “I’m sorry for making you sad!”

 

Nicky registered the words but it took him a minute to respond. 

 

“Everyone always leaves me!”

 

“I’m here!” the little boy tried to reassure.

 

“That’s not what I meant!” The older boy sniffed, “I mean, mom and dad got divorced and grandma’s sick and, and I lost my best friend. He was there one minute and gone the next and I don’t know if I’ll ever see him again and I miss him and, and I want him back! Now!”

 

Ahkmen was trying to process everything that had just been cried at him. 

 

“Where did your friend go?” 

 

“Away.” Nicky rubbed his face on his sleeve, “Far far away.” 

 

“He did tell you?”

 

“No.” 

 

“Maybe he had to do something important?”

 

“I-”

 

“Did he have a mission? Like a guard or a _diplomat?”_

 

“Kinda like a guard.” It wasn’t so far from the truth really.

 

“Who was he protecting?”

 

“Me.”

 

“Well he’s doing his job good then. You’re safe.” 

 

“Yeah,” Nicky couldn’t argue that point at least, “I suppose, but I miss him.” 

 

“He would miss you too but if he’s doing his job he’ll be pleased you’re safe. If he’s your friend he’d want you happy.” The child had an irrefutable way of speaking sometimes. 

 

“I, I,” 

 

“Wouldn’t he?” Ahkmen pressed.

 

“I suppose.” 

 

“I know.” Stated Ahkmen with all the confidence of a child who thinks he understands the world, “Friends are supposed to look after each other and care and love and he would do all those things if he was protecting you.” Nicky wasn’t sure what made it worse, that it was Ahkmen telling him this or that he really hoped it was Ahkmenrah speaking through him when he knew it couldn’t be. 

 

Apparently Ahkmen thought the matter dealt with, having assure Nicky so he pressed onto his next question. “What’s a divorce?”  
Nicky was so surprised by the change of topic he answered without thinking. 

 

“It means people say they don’t want to be married anymore.” 

 

Ahkmen was aghast, “But you can’t be un-married!”

 

“Yes you can.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Because people stop loving each other.” 

 

Ahkmen’s eyes widened in shock, that couldn’t happen! Love was for life!

 

“But why?!” He demanded, horrified. 

 

“I don’t know okay! Sometimes grown up fall in love and fall out of love. It happens, it happened to my mom and dad!”

 

“Your mummy and daddy aren’t married anymore?”

 

“No.” huffed Nicky.

 

“Oh.” Ahkmen paused, trying to think of something to say, when something important flashed across his mind, “Do they still love you?”

 

“What?” Nicky was shocked by the question, answering indignantly, “YES! Of course they do!”

 

“Do they have new grown-up loves too?” 

 

“Yeah, well Mom does,” offered the younger Daley, “she’s got Don, Dad doesn’t yet. He’s too busy here.” 

 

“That’s sad.” It was very sad really thought Ahkmen, everyone should have a love. Maybe Nicky’s daddy could find a new love? He’d have to think about it.

 

“I don’t think he minds too much at the moment.” 

 

“But they definitely love you?” Pressed the tiny pharaoh.

 

“Yes!” 

 

“Even Don?” Ahkmen’s brow was furrowed in concentration like he was looking for something in Nicky’s answer.

 

“Yes!” exclaimed Nicky, throwing his hands in the air for good measure, trying to get his point across.

 

“Then why are you sad?” 

 

The question pulled Nicky up short, whatever he’d been expecting it wasn’t that, “What?!”

 

“You have a mummy, a daddy and a Don who love you very much. Isn’t that a good thing?” The question was so innocent, so straightforward threw Nicky for a moment.

 

“Maybe.” He began, thinking about the issue for a moment, really thinking about it,  “But,” he began in earnest, voicing something he had never really shared before, “I liked it being just mom and dad and me at home, just us and then it all changed!”

 

“But if they didn’t love each other wouldn’t living in the same house make them sad?” Ahkmen was like a dog with a bone, unrelenting till he got what he wanted, which was answers he could understand apparently.

 

“Well-” if he were honest, yes, yes it did. They’d argued a lot. He’d been younger, he was seven when they’d split up and then his dad had moved out and he’d been really upset at not having his dad around as much anymore and it had been really rough but he couldn’t argue that really it wasn’t for the best. His Mom and Dad were much, MUCH happier now. They were still friends, they saw each other a lot and they always made time for him. Don was great too, he really loved his mom and him and actually liked his Dad. He knew from a lot of his school friends it could be so much worse. 

 

“Yeah,” he said aloud, admitting the truth, “yeah it did make them sad.” 

 

“And now they’re happy? Living in different houses?”

 

“Yeah.” He answered honestly.

 

“And they still love you lots? And see you lots?”

 

“Yes. Yes they love me and see me.” He agreed feeling oddly lighter.

 

“So that’s good. You can be happy about that!”

 

Nicky stared at the child. The way he’d put it all was very over-simplified. It wasn’t all that easy he knew but it did make him feel better hearing the basics reiterated. He was loved, knew it in his bones, he was never unsure of that fact ever. His parents though divorced, were still friends. They never argued, never yelled at each other anymore, they were always nice to each other and his mom was always happy for him to spend time with his dad even outside the ‘official’ time the courts said. Don was really kind and funny too, he helped him with his homework, they played video games together and played soccer with him in the park. He knew he wasn’t Nicky’s dad and couldn’t ever be but he was still happy to be there for him. Nicky really liked him, maybe even loved him a bit like a Dad. Maybe Ahkmen was right. It was a good thing. And right now that’s all he needed it to be. His gran was even getting better. 

 

Trust his best friend to STILL be able to give really good advice even when he was tiny. 

 

Urgh. He looked at the worried kid. He’d been a bit of a jerk to Ahkmen the whole the week he’d been around, hating him for not being Ahkmenrah. Okay, ‘a bit of a jerk’ was an understatement, he’d avoided the kid like the plague even when he only wanted to play with him. 

 

But using the logic he’d been hit with, everything could be A LOT worse. Ahk could have been killed, ALL the magic could have stopped forever. So he’d lost his big brother for the moment, that was true and that hurt like he’d been smacked in guts with a hockey puck at point blank range but, but he still had a version of Ahk at least alive and well. 

 

Nicky sighed, rubbing a hand over his face in an unconsciously copied move from his dad. 

 

He was going to honour his and Ahk’s friendship. 

 

It wasn’t his fault the magic had freaked out the way it had. There was no telling with the tablet just how it worked anyway and if Ahk had let it hit him it could have all done even more horribly wrong. Ahk was over 4000 years old, what if it hadn’t taken off thirteen years like his dad thought (thirteen years Nicky didn’t have anyway but that was besides the point) but it had taken _thousands_? There was just no way to know. 

 

Anyway if he, Nicky, had been affected he knew for a fact Ahkmenrah would have stuck by him so he was just going to have to level up and stick by him now. Ahk had been an awesome older brother figure for him so he was going to return the favour. Ahk needed someone to look out for him here and the adult exhibits usually got caught up in the chaos of the museum every so often. He felt ashamed it had taken him this long to see things like this but he reasoned, it had been a pretty big shock.

 

“Okay then.”

 

Worry about other stuff later, look after kid-Ahk now. Hope like hell he’d get grown-Ahk back soon.

 

“So, you want listen to something really good?”

 

“Yes please!”

 

They were still dancing energetically when Larry came to find them an hour later, whale crisis managed (turns out the Peruvian ladies and civil war guys played a mean relaxing pipe set, calming the whale down again. Larry found out it had been freaked out by the Mammoth wandering through the hall and knocking into some of the floodlights) both Nicky and Ahkmen bouncing enthusiastically to the pop music blaring out of the iPod.

 

***

 

The next day Nicky came to the museum with a specific mission, after the usual English lesson where everyone was making progress, (some slower than others but still, everyone was doing well) Nicky went straight over to Ahkmen and offered him his hand.

 

“I’ve got something to share with you if you like?”

 

Ahkmen’s eyes lit up. Nicky wanted to spend time with him! This was going to be an extra special good day! “Yes Please!”

 

“Come on then, let’s go to the mineral room.” Encouraged Nicky, trying to ignore all the approving looks he was getting from the rest of the English language teachers and students.

 

They made their way there very quickly, Ahkmen trying his hardest not to ask every question that bubbled inside him.

 

Nicky plonked himself down and motioned for Ahkmen to do the same.

 

“Now this is something very special here, _a delicacy.”_ Nicky withdrew a large bar of chocolate from his backpack and handed it over to the excited child.

 

“What is it? What’s it made from?” Ahkmen was almost fizzing with excitement.

 

“Cocoa plants that grow a very long way from Egypt.”

 

“Can I try some please?”

 

“Yeah, of course you can.” It still impressed Nicky how polite Ahkmen was, even at this age and in a second language. Ahkmenrah of course is always polite but Nicky had never appreciated just how ingrained it was in him.

 

Ahkmen started to unwrap the treat, brows furrowed, little tongue poking out in concentration until he reveal the dark brown block.

 

“What’s this?”

 

“It’s called chocolate.”

 

“Can you eat it like this?”

 

“Oh yeah, break a bit off and try it.”

 

The child obeyed curiously, taking a tiny piece and nibbling it. It took a moment for the taste to register but Nicky could tell when it did.

 

The smile that blossomed on Ahkmen’s face was nothing short of beatific.

 

He immediately bit a much larger chunk off the bar and chewed happily, chocolately drool escaping down one side of his mouth. Nicky made a ‘yuck’ face as he wiped the child clean.

 

It was so good, creamy and rich and melty in his mouth, it was like a whole meal in one. This HAD to be food of the Gods! There was no way food like this was available mortals, even to Pharaohs! It was just too good!

 

“Mnish s‘th’beshet ev-a!” he managed through his mouthful.

 

Nicky couldn’t help but laugh, taking a picture with his digital camera ready to show grown Ahkmenrah when he returned. He already had one of his older brother enjoying the treat the first time around. Though to be fair, he managed the introduction with a lot less of it on his face.

 

They devoured the chocolate between them in record time though Nicky was impressed at how much Ahkmen had managed to get it even in his eyebrows due to sheer excitement.

 

“Thank you! Thank you for sharing with me!”

 

The younger boy wrapped his arms affectionately around the older child. He was delighted when instead of being pushed away for being _‘too clingy for Ra’s sake’_ he felt the older boy return the hug and ruffle his hair.

“No worries dude, what are bro’s for?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

%MCEPASTEBIN%

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Please let me know what you thought of this one, I read every comment and they make my day! Feel free to ask me a question about this series too, I’m always happy to chat NATM! 
> 
> My work schedule is still very busy but I will try to get the next chapter up in the next two to three weeks-I’ve got another piece to finish in the meantime as well! Sorry!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this one! :)


	3. Scents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The board at the museum want to trial a new museum experience-'sensory immersion' making the exhibits have the scents of where they are representing. Larry thinks this is just a silly waste of time but it's not going to impact him or the night so what does it matter? 
> 
> Oh how wrong he is...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my lovelies!  
> I am SO SORRY it has taken me so long to update, I’m in my new house now but I am still without internet and I’m also having to finish up and post my NATMBB challenge fic too! Plus, I’m just getting over a rather nasty chest infection so I’ve been even slower than usual :(  
> Thank you so much for continuing to read, kudos and comment on this series of stories, I can’t tell you what they mean to me, it’s been a really tough month and every review you leave encouraging me really spurs me on when I need it!
> 
> (Thank you to everyone who has commented recently, I have no time to reply now but promise I will and I just wanted to say to everyone how much those comments mean to me!)

“You, Nightguard a word please.” 

Larry tried really, really hard not to sigh. One day, one day Dr McPhee would address him by his name. Alas, today was not that day. 

“Yes Dr Phee? What can I do for you?”

“I just wanted to keep you updated about our temporary exhibitions.”

“Oh, right yes, are they-?”

“They’re delayed something about them proving popular at their current location and being asked to stay on till the end of this month. We will be getting our mythology exhibit but it will be next month.” 

“Oh okay, well if you need any help to set that up then I’d be happy to give you a hand.” 

“That’s very good of you Daley”

“Larry sir,” 

“Larry?”

“You can call me Larry sir, rather than ‘Daley’.” 

“Oh, right yes, if you wish, anyway, there is one other thing-”

“We’re not getting another replacement are we?” Asked Larry quickly, way too quickly.

McPhee was pulled up short, “No, why?”

“Just, just it disrupts things when the usual exhibits aren’t here.”

“Disrupts? It’s only you here!” Cried the director in exasperation, “They don’t all magically come to life at night you know!” He waved his hands for good measure.

“Yeah, true, “Larry began trying desperately not to sound crazy, “but I have a routine and I like to check on everyone in a set order.”

McPhee was looking at him like he’d grown a second head. 

“Anyway,” prompted Larry, trying to get this conversation back on track, “you were saying?”

“Yes, quite,” McPhee gave him another long look before continueing as if he was trying to evaluate his Night Guard’s sanity, “well there’s a new study from the museum association that the board wants us to pilot here.” 

“Which is?”

“Sensory immersion.”

“Come again?”

McPhee rolled his eyes. 

“Sensory immersion.” He enunciated primly.

 

“What does that mean?” Larry wasn’t stupid but he hadn’t the first idea how on earth they’d even attempt that here. 

 

“Well, it’s quite simple,” Sounding as though he though Larry was in fact decidedly stupid, “we’re going to infuse some of the exhibits with the ambience of the area they are reflecting, tulips for our golden age of Holland exhibit, sea salt and brine for our Viking exhibit and so on.” 

 

“Blood for the Mayans?” Asked Larry trying hard to look innocent. Honestly this all just sounded ridiculous. 

 

“Don’t be so childish!” Snapped the Director, “Anyway, the day staff will be trialling it tomorrow, I just thought you’d like to know ahead of things so you don’t worry that cleaners have been over-zealous.” 

 

“Um, thanks Dr Phee I appreciate it.” 

 

“Good. Well, carry on then.” 

 

“I will, have a good evening.” 

 

“Er, yes, thank you and the same to you.” Offered the director awkwardly before huffilling off. Huffilling. It was a word Rebecca had invented to describe the way McPhee moved and it had stuck in Larry’s brain. It really was rather perfect he thought, Dr McPhee moved with a sense of purpose it was true but he was always looking for threats, problems, mess, disorder in his museum, eyes and body moving serupticiously, not quite annoyed but on the brink of it, in a huff as it were. 

 

Yeah, huffilling was totally a word in his own personal dictionary. Even if it made him miss Rebecca all the more. 

 

So that was a thing now, sensory immersion. Daft idea but not his problem. 

 

He told the others about it as soon as the sun went down, Anna looked pleased as did Ragnar, they’d missed the scents of home and this potential comfort was welcomed. Larry made it very clear to everyone though that modern day scents were pretty damn artificial and not to get their hopes up of smelling their homes once again, it was probably going to be a faint whiff of disappointment. 

 

Oh how wrong he was. 

 

It was much, much worse. 

 

***

 

The following evening everyone awoke as usual, the scents in full operation which immediately had the cavemen following their noses and trying to lick Anna’s exhibit much to her annoyance. In the commotion something rather important got forgotten. 

 

Ahkmen awoke with a twitching nose. 

 

He knew that smell! 

 

His eyes flew open as he looked about expectantly. 

 

_ “MUMMY _ !” He cried out happily, fully expecting to see her standing over his bed. The whole room smelled of her! It was the familiar scent of the palace and her perfume, soft wax and warm! It was her! She was here! 

 

_ “Mummy!”  _ He called out again, _“where are you? Mummy?!”_

 

He looked about eagerly, expecting to see her in his room but she was nowhere to be found. _“Mummy?”_ He asked again, uncertainty creeping into his voice. _“Mummy where are you?”_ His lower lip began to wobble. She was here! He knew it! He could SMELL her. It was definitely her. No one else could afford the perfume she used on her hair. 

 

_ “Mummy are you hiding?” _ Maybe she was playing hide and seek? And he had to find her? No. That was silly. Mummies didn’t play games. They asked you if you’d been good at your lessons and what had you learned and told stories and sang and kissed you goodnight and if you were very good you got to cuddle them and not the nurse. No his mummy wasn’t playing hide and seek. 

 

He sat back down for a moment, disappointed misery threatening to overcome him entirely. He wracked his brains for a moment, he KNEW she was here. NO ONE else smelled like her. So what had happened?

 

The answer came to him in a flash of memory. 

 

She’d been watching him sleep! She did that sometimes, after he’d been tucked in, when he was supposed to be asleep she’d come in and sing to him. He always pretended to be asleep because she’d be cross if he wasn’t but he loved hearing her, especially when she’d lean down and kiss his cheek too. His nose would be full of the scent of her. 

 

THAT’S what had happened. 

 

She’d watched him sleep and then gone off to do mummy things. But she was here! In the hall of the Gods! If she was here maybe she’d come to take him home! She was probably just letting him sleep longer because ‘ _little princes need lots of sleep’_. Right, well, he’d done all his sleeping (even if he still felt a bit tired) so he was going to show her what a big boy he was and how much he’d been learning since he’d been placed here by the gods. He could speak the common tongue pretty well now, and he’d made lots of friends and tried new things and maybe these friends here would be good for Egypt. It was good to have friends and they could all be friends together. That’s what daddy was always trying to do, make friends with other kingdoms (Even if Egypt was the best) but he used his grown up word, _allies_ , but maybe his friends could be allies too? Then they’d know he’d been being a good prince whilst he’d been in the God’s hall. 

 

With that thought Ahkmen leapt out of bed, heading straight for the toilets nearest to his room, diving for the special box Moon Mother kept his hall clothes in and his toothbrush and paste. He was so excited about seeing his mother, his _own_ mother again he didn’t wait for anyone to meet him. He was a big boy anyway, a prince of Egypt. He knew how to brush his teeth and get dressed on his own. 

 

Very soon, with clean teeth and a dungarees buckled on the right way (even if the t-shirt was inside out and back to front) and his beloved red sneakers tied up with pretty bows he headed out to find his mummy. Sticking his nose in the air he sniffed as hard as he could, trying to work out which way his mother had gone. 

 

It didn’t take him long to pick up her trail, Ahkmen scampered along, stopping every few moments to make sure he was still on the right path. He was practically fizzing with excitement. He was going to see his mummy again! He’d missed her so very, very much, he had so much to tell her he thought he might burst with it all. 

 

He headed down the stairs, holding the banister like a good boy (Moon Mother and Papa Bear had made him promise to always use the rail if he was on the stairs without them) 

 

Once he got to the bottom of the stairs he stopped and sniffed again carefully, her perfume was stronger here, following his nose he crossed the lobby quickly heading down one of the side corridors. 

 

If he’d been paying attention to the world around him he might have noticed the lack of people, or been worried that no one came to get him that morning (evening) however, he was a prince on a mission and no one was going to stop him getting to his mummy. Not even the Gods themselves. 

 

Once all the chaos of the curious cavemen died down Anna realised with a jolt of horror that it was her turn on morning duty with Ahkmen. She bolted to the Egyptian exhibit, heart in her mouth which quickly plunged to the floor when she discovered his bed empty. She quickly checked the bathroom, making sure he’s come that way. His pyjamas were folded neatly in his box of things, (well, as neatly as a five year old can fold at least) and his toothbrush was wet so he was clearly up and about. Now the question was where? Where in the museum was he up and about?!

 

Anna knew the only sensible thing she could do at this point was swallow her pride and find Sac and find her quickly. Sac was hands down the best tracker in the museum and Anna would never forgive herself if her delay in admitting the truth got the little boy lost or hurt.  

 

Anna put her head down and ran. 

 

***

 

Larry had just finished dealing with the grumpy cavemen, giving them some spare packing polystyrene pieces he’d found to mollify them. This apparently was an acceptable offering and the three remaining cavemen chewed the pieces happily. Larry was just grateful the guys couldn’t get stomach aches. 

 

He risked a long sigh of relief. 

 

His peace lasted about four seconds. 

 

“Guardian! Guardian! Come quick! The little one!” 

 

Tulung, one of the Inuit’s bounded over to Larry, his face a mask of worry, trying to articulate in the new language he’d been learning. 

 

“Little one?” The Night Guard questioned before the realisation hit him like a sledgehammer. “AHKMEN?!” Larry grabbed Tulung’s arms in a panic, “What’s the matter?!”

 

 

“He try door! Door no open. Little one very sad!” 

 

Oh. Crap. Had Ahkmen been accidentally locked in somewhere?! 

 

“Show me, now!” 

 

Tulung led him down the nearest corridor. 

 

***

 

Anna hurtled towards Sac’s exhibit, “SACAGAWEA!”  

 

Sac was just stepping out of her room, having spent a few extra minutes catch up with Lewis and Clark since Teddy had been late coming to her. As it was, Teddy had been caught up in the Caveman fiasco, trying to help Larry restore peace and had been drawn into a discussion about hunting with Ragnar. Both men with their love of the hunt in common were becoming close friends despite the language barriers, Teddy and Ragnar’s habit of articulating wildly served their meanings far better than words anyway. 

 

“What is the matter my friend?” Sac’s eyes narrowed as soon as the words left her mouth, taking in Anna’s panicked state, “Where’s Ahkmen?” she asked immediately.

 

“I don’t know!” Anna was near tears, “I was late getting to him this morning, the cavemen nearly destroyed my exhibit as soon as sundown and I was stuck sorting them out with Larry, I completely forgot it was my turn with Ahkmen and when I realised he’d gone! Help me find him! Please!” 

 

Sac took her friend’s hand consolingly, “Calm down Anna, we will find him, he cannot have got far, let us trace him from his room.” 

 

Anna nodded eagerly following Sac’s lead. They got halfway into the lobby when Sac stopped dead. 

 

“What’s the matter?”

 

“He came through here, and went that way,” she pointed down one of the corridors, “Come on! We shall find him soon!” The Shoshone woman darted off, the Dutch woman following in her wake. 

 

They didn’t have to guess for long where Ahkmen was. They could hear him. Wordlessly both women ran harder. 

 

They arrived at McPhee’s door at the same moment Larry and Tulung skidded to a halt. All four adults froze at the sight in front of them. 

 

Ahkmen was nigh on hysterical, crying as though his very soul was bleeding from him. He was pounding on the door with tiny bruised fists. 

 

“ _MUMMY!”_ He screamed, “ _MUMMY LET ME IN! IT’S AHKMEN! I’M HERE! I WANT TO GO HOME WITH YOU MUMMY! I WANT TO GO HOME! DON’T YOU LOVE ME ANYMORE?! MUMMY! PLEASE! PLEASE COME OUT! I WANT TO SEE YOU! I WANT TO GO HOME WITH YOU! PLEASE! I’M SORRY I WAS SLEEPING WHEN YOU CAME! I’M AWAKE NOW! I WANT TO GO HOME WITH YOU! I MISS YOU SO MUCH! I WANT YOU! I LOVE YOU! PLEASE!”_   

 

“What the hell is going on?!” Demanded Larry, horrified at the state Ahkmen was in, he’d NEVER seen a child this distressed. The night guard was honestly worried Ahkmen was going to choke himself on his sobs. 

 

Ahkmen pounded on the door harder at the sight of the other adults. He didn’t want them! He wanted his mummy! His OWN mummy!

 

**_ “MUMMY LET ME IN!” _ **

 

Sac got low, approaching Ahkmen cautiously, “Ahkmen, little moon, what’s the matter? Why are you trying to get in the Director’s office?”

 

Ahkmen stopped long enough to look at her as though she were mad. His little face was blotchy with the long stream of tears, eyes puffy and red from crying but it was the look in them that made Sacagawea freeze in place. He was utterly and inconsolably heartbroken. 

 

“ _Mummy won’t let me in. She doesn’t love me anymore.”_ With that he let out a soul-shattered howl and crumpled to the floor face in his hands as he sobbed his little heart out. 

 

“Can anyone understand anything he’s saying?” Larry was looking frantic, hating the fact that he really sucked at languages. 

 

“No, but what would make a child cry like that?” Asked Sac grimly.

 

“Little one misses his mother.” Stated Tulung as though it was the simplest thing in the world. Sac nodded at him, agreeing wholeheartedly. 

 

“Well yeah we knew that but he’s been here two weeks now, he’s been coping okay, what the hell set him off…” Larry trailed off, face morphing into an expression of horror. 

 

“What? What is it?” Prompted Anna, utterly lost at this turn of events, she’d had no children of her own and no younger siblings to mind when she was growing up. She had no idea what could have triggered Ahkmen’s homesickness so badly.

 

“Sensory immersion.” Mumbled Larry looking shell-shocked.

 

“Come again?” The Dutch woman was trying desperately to keep up.

 

“The smells, what I was telling you about last night, what made the cavemen go crazy for your exhibit.” 

 

“The smell of tulips, but how-?”

 

“Oh great spirits!” Realisation came clanging into clarity for Sac, “the scents, I assume Ahkmenrah’s exhibit was also infused?” 

 

“Yeah, yeah it was.” The full weight of what had happened dawned on Larry, “Oh my god.” His stomach dropped through the floor, “I didn’t think! I didn’t think!” he was nearing panic himself now. They could have prevented this! 

 

“What are you talking about?!” Demanded Anna. 

 

Tulung was watching everything unfold, well aware of what had kicked this whole episode off. He knew how powerful scents were, how he prayed to Sedna every day that his family were safely within her care when he visited the Ocean life room. 

 

“Ahk’s room got filled with perfume,” explained Larry to a confused Anna, “expensive for the time perfume that would have been the standard scent used by Egyptian royalty.” 

 

The penny dropped, “Oh great heavens! So you think-?”

 

“I know.” Answered Sac, Larry nodding along, she squeezed his hand consolingly, “we are all at fault, you told us in time, none of us thought of this, none of us. None one considered that it would make his room smell like his parents.” 

 

All the adults gazed at the still-sobbing Ahkmen utterly horrified. 

 

“What do we do?” Asked Anna quietly, itching to just scoop up the heartbroken little boy and cuddle him till he stopped crying. 

 

“Show him the truth.” Spoke up Tulung. “Hard truth but better to know.” 

 

“I don’t know,” Larry was against anything that could upset Ahkmen any further at this point, “won’t that kinda destroy him-this isn’t like Santa.” 

 

“Who?” 

 

“Doesn’t matter.”

 

“Tulung is right.” Sac’s brow was furrowed, her mouth a hard line as though she disliked what she was saying but felt she had to say it anyway, “Ahkmen needs to see the truth. He needs to know his mother was never here rather than the idea that she has abandoned him, nothing will destroy a child more than the belief that a parent no longer loves them.” 

 

“How are we going to explain that to him?” Pressed Larry, very reluctant to break the already broken heart of the little boy in front of him. 

 

“As best as we can, but otherwise he’s never going to willingly leave here.” Sac’s heart was heavy, she wanted nothing more than to wrap Ahkmen up in her arms and cuddle him till his heart was eased but right now he would most likely push her away. 

 

Larry nodded, seeing the logic of the plan but he had a really bad feeling about this but he knew if he just gave into his instinct to just pick up Ahkmen right now and cuddle him he was likely to be bitten for his trouble. 

 

“Okay,” he agreed with a world weariness, he produced his keys, “here goes, fingers crossed.” He unlocked the door. 

 

Ahkmen had looked up, eyes still swimming with tears, as soon as he heard the jingle of keys. The second the door was open the child leapt forwards, darting into the room.

 

_ “MUMMY! MUMMY! I’M HERE! MUMMY! MUMMY WHERE ARE YOU?! I’M HERE! I WANT TO GO HOME WITH YOU! MUMMY!” _

 

He ran around frantically looking in all the cupboards, looking under the desk and even pulling open the drawers, desperately searching for his mother. 

 

It was miserable to witness. 

 

After a while his searching slowed. _“Mummy? Mummy? Why did you go? Why did you leave me? I’m sorry mummy, I’m sorry! Come back! Come back! Please come back, don’t go!”_

 

He burst into tears again. 

 

This time Sac did wrap her arms around him. 

 

He clung onto her for a moment. 

 

“ _Why did she leave me?!”_ He looked up and remembered to use his English, _“_ Why did mummy leave me?”

 

Sac very gently drew back from him, wiping his face as she did so. “Ahkmen, little moon, I am very sorry but you need to listen to me.” She waited till she had his full attention, “Your mother was not here tonight. It was only perfume that smelled like her. She wasn’t here. She hasn’t left you I promise. I know she’s very proud of you and--”

 

“No!” Ahkmen was already shaking his head in denial, “She was here! She was!”

 

“Ahkmen, she wasn’t, she wasn’t here. She’s very proud of you wherever she is and I know if she were here she would have taken you with her, she loves you very much and--”

 

“BUT SHE LEFT ME!” 

 

“Ahkmen, buddy, she wasn’t here, I promise. I’m the guardian of everything here and I would know.” 

 

“She, she,” Ahkmen tried to process everything he’d just been told. 

 

It was too much. 

 

“NO!” He pushed Sac away, “NO! I WANT MY MUMMY! I WANT HER! NOW!”

 

“Ahkmen, sweetheart, she’s not here we swear.” Added Anna, trying to be consoling, miserable that she hadn’t been able to stop this sooner. 

 

With a howl Ahkmen fled the office, leaving four stunned and horrified adults in his wake. 

 

“Well that could have gone better.” 

 

“What have I done?” Sacagawea was almost beside herself.

 

“Hey, Sac,” Larry consoled the Shoshone woman, “you and Tulung were right, it was better to tell him and let him see for himself. Come on, we best find him before he tries his stairs trick again.” 

 

Anna took Sac’s hand, “it was the bravest thing, Ahkmen’s strong, he’ll see the truth in time, come on.” 

 

Tulung nodded sagely, it was better to know the realities of the world then believe in false hope. The little one had a lot to learn and missing parents was always the hardest thing but he needed to know his mother had not abandoned him, knowing she was never there was better, in the long run, than thinking she had forsaken him. 

 

The four adults left quickly, looking for the distraught child. Never before had any of them been more grateful that the museum as a rule didn’t have child replicas so at least they only had to deal with Ahkmen’s reaction rather than a whole class full. 

 

***

 

As she hunted for the child Sacagawea thought sadly back to the times she’d seen Pharaoh Ahkmenrah betray his homesickness. It was rare since he usually kept such a tight hold on his emotions but once, when he’d been exhausted and headed to the office for sleep as usual she’d checked on him a few hours into the night, as was her custom. Usually, whenever it a night when Ahkmenrah slept several of the exhibits stopped by to quietly look in on him, making sure he was sleeping peacefully. 

 

Once she’d checked on him and he was in the grip of a nightmare. Sacagawea had slipped inside the office, sitting down carefully next to Ahk she gently took his hand, stroking his face softly, “Ahkmenrah, brother of my heart, all is well, all is well, you are safe, and it is just a nightmare.” Instead of being soothed back to sleep he startled awake. Frightened and disorientated he scrabbled in the dark. 

 

“Mother?!” 

 

“No,” Sac answered as gently but firmly as she could, it would be beyond cruel to even give him the slightest hope, “it is Sacagawea my friend. She turned on the desk lamp. The warm glow illuminating Ahk’s face. She’d never seen him look so young, so vulnerable. 

 

“Oh.” He subconsciously curled into himself. Sac could see him trying to put the pharaoh mask back in place but it just wouldn’t come, he was clearly too tired and too upset. 

 

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. 

 

“It’s not your fault. It was just a nightmare. It happens.” He attempted to shrug off the incident but she could see the fear, the misery in his eyes. Ahkmenrah had obviously not been comforted by his mother for a very long time. It didn’t mean that he didn’t need to be comforted on occasion however, Ahk was a proud young man. He didn’t take kindly to pity. 

 

Sac tightened her grip on his hand. 

 

For the first time he noticed. 

 

“I miss my mother too.” She spoke in low voice, seemingly afraid that if she spoke too loudly her own heart would hear, “I wish she could be here, I wanted her to see Jean-Baptiste, I want her to see my beautiful boy and my bear, I believe she would have liked him.” 

 

Ahk squeezed her hand in return, seeing the gesture for what it was, a sharing of pain, a grounding anchor, Sac very, very rarely offered up any information of life before the museum. “I’m sure she would, who can dislike Teddy? And as for my Nephew, there is no finer babe in all the land the moon shines upon.” 

 

They shared a smile. 

 

“I just,” Ahk began in an equally quiet voice to the one she had spoken in, “I miss her sometimes, I miss her voice and her calm good sense, and she had a way of making everything feel better, just by being there. She always had a good sense of things and how to approach life’s problems. I miss her perfume, the way she’d smell as she came to say goodnight when I was young. I sometimes nightmared as a child and sometimes if I was lucky she would be the one to soothe me rather than a nurse.” 

 

“I understand, Ahk, I do, I’m sorry she cannot be here tonight.” 

 

“I am hardly a child anymore! I don’t need platitudes!” He huffed immediately.

 

“No,” agreed Sac gently, “but even grown men and women miss their mothers and fathers, it is a fact of nature. With our parents we are safe. We know this instinctively. It is the way of nature.” 

 

Ahk deflated instantly, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap, I hadn’t thought of it like that.” 

 

“Because you are usually too busy worrying over everyone else and maintaining your composure.” 

 

Ahk gave her a rueful smile that spoke volumes. “How long is it since you’ve seen your mother?”

 

“Oh,” Ahk saw Sac gather her courage, he squeezed her hand in sympathy, “I was taken by a raiding party when I twelve. I never saw her again, I had Jean-Baptiste on the journey with Lewis and Clark and there was no opportunity to send word to her in time before we moved on.” 

 

Ahk was reeling. “I am truly sorry.” 

 

“As am I but I have faith that one day, a long time from now we will eventually be reunited. As it is I know she watches over me.” Sac smiled bravely.

 

“I’m sure she couldn’t be prouder.” 

 

“I hope so.” 

 

“I am sure of it.” He smiled his warmest smile at her, hugging her for a moment. He had become increasingly demonstrative since his release and she intended to encourage it at every opportunity. After a while they pulled back from each other, still smiling before Ahk’s faltered and he became more sober, “Thank you, for staying with me.” He added quietly. 

 

“You are more than welcome, we all miss home but it helps none of us to hide the fact.” 

 

Ahk nodded gratefully, appreciating the fact that Sac spoke so plainly, “You are too good to me _ka-sister_.” 

 

“No better than you are to me _spirit brother_.” They shared another smile. “Now, you need your sleep.” She paused, considering him, “Little brother.” she teased gently. 

 

Ahk was indignant, “I am four thousand years older than you!”

 

“Indeed but you still have a bedtime where as I do not. I believe that makes me the older sister.” She looked undeniably smug at her own logic.

 

Ahk huffed good-naturedly, seeing the teasing for what it was, he’d begun to relax a little about his perceived age and the gentle teasing only helped to reinforce that the inhabitants as the museum really saw him as a person and more importantly, one of _them_. Despite his age, old or young compared to the rest of them, he was one of _them._

 

“Fine.” Then he was sporting a grin himself as an idea formed, “Though I demand a song sister-dear in the manner of all annoying little brothers.” He smirked wickedly.

 

She grinned back, “I don’t think I could truly call you annoying but very well,” she tugged back the blanket, taking on the role she’d assigned herself with an obvious flourish. “Settle down young one and I shall begin.” 

 

Ahk flashed her a grin of his own, continuing to play along, he dutifully snuggled down as she had bade him. She brought the blanket up to his shoulders and began to sing the only song that would do, his song, the gift he had given to her several months before. 

 

His eyes widened a moment then nodded in wordless gratitude, all pretence lost. 

 

She brought up a hand to card through his hair, it wasn’t the movements of a mother but the movements of a caring older sister, not to replace but to create something new. Ahk’s eyes slowly drifted shut, genuinely soothed by her. Once she was sure he was asleep she pressed a gentle kiss to his temple before quietly leaving him to rest peacefully. 

 

They never spoke of that night but they were ever closer from it, they respected each other’s privacy over matters close to the heart but they took solace in each other’s company. Ahkmenrah had been bolstered by the fact he had shown weakness and not been ridiculed for it and Sac rejoiced in the matter she could share her sorrow without being pitied. Quietly and gently they helped each other heal some of the wounds they carried in their souls. 

 

Which was why Sacagawea was all the more devastated at the current turn of events, Ahkmen needed comfort and reassurance which she, as she was, just couldn’t manage. She doubted anyone but Ahkmen’s own mother would even have the slightest hope at easing him at the moment. 

 

She redoubled her efforts to find the distraught child. 

 

***

 

Ahkmen could barely see through his tears but he knew where he was going, he knew who he could ask to try and fix this horrible mess. He wanted his mummy back! His own mummy! She was in a different world now and the only people he knew who were also from another realm were here with the gods. He could ask them to help him, surely THEY’D know how to get his mummy back. 

 

To say Jed and Octavius were caught by surprise when a wailing, unaccompanied Ahkmen came darting into their hall would be the understatement of the year. 

 

_ “PLEASE HELP ME FIND MY MUMMY! SHE WAS HERE AND NOW SHE’S NOT! SHE’S LEFT ME HERE AND I WANT HER BACK! I’LL DO ANYTHING! I WANT HER TO LOVE ME AGAIN! PLEASE! YOU LIVE IN A DIFFERENT WORLD! YOU CROSS OVER ALL THE TIME! SHOW ME! PLEASE! I WANT HER BACK PLEASE!”  _

 

Jed and Octavius shared one terrified look before leaping into action. 

 

“Whoa there lil’buddy, calm down, what’s the matter? Can you use y’English for us?”

 

“Ahkmen, my prince, please, we need you to speak to us in English or else we can’t help you.” 

 

The little boy just cried. 

 

“Hey, Ahklet,” Jed crooned, “we can’t help you if you don’ tell us what the matter is. C’mon, jus’ breathe with me okay? Give me y’hand.” The miserable child held out a trembling hand. Jed took one of Ahkmen’s fingers, “Good boy, now, when I hold your finger you take a big breath in and when I let go you breathe out. Okay?” Ahkmen nodded tearfully. 

 

Jed grasped the tiny Egyptian’s index finger tightly. 

 

Ahkmen breathed in. 

 

Jed let go. 

 

Ahkmen dutifully breathed out. 

 

They repeated this for a while till the little boy was calmer and his tears had slowed. 

 

“Okay, that’s great little buddy, you tell ol’ Jedediah and Octavius what the matter is an’ we’ll see what we can do.” 

 

Not for the first time Octavius was impressed with Jed’s ability to wrangle children. The man had a natural gift it seemed. The Roman General felt the familiar pang of sadness that Jed had never had children of his own, he would have been a great father. 

 

“I want my mummy!” wailed the distraught child, thankfully in English this time, “she was here and, and now she’s gone,” he gulped to try and swallow up some of his tears, “and she didn’t take me with her and I want to go with her to the other world and you live in a different world and come here so please help to find her again because she left me here and, and she, she doesn’t love me anymore!” The words burst out of the child in torrent before he dissolved into tears again. 

 

Hot. DAMN. Jed was reeling. What the hell had they missed? How the hell do you even START on something like that?! He’d better get comforting FAST. Why the hell wasn’t he Gigantor sized?! It was beginning to annoy him more and more that he couldn’t wrap his arms around the distraught kid and just hug him. Still, he would do something that worked or his name wasn’t Jedediah Smith.

 

“Aww hey, lil buddy, Ahklet, of course your momma loves you! How could anyone not love you? Momma’s always love their baby boy’s no matter what they do.” 

 

“She would?” Sniffled the child, thoroughly disbelieving. 

 

“Of course she loves you, I know that for a fact.” 

 

“Really?” The little boy still sounded very doubtful. 

 

“Absolutely-positutely.” 

 

“But, but she left me!” Insisted the child, “I want her back! Please! I want to go home!”

 

“Ahkmen, my prince, how do you know she was here? Did you see her?”

 

Ahkmen was taken aback by the calm question, “N-no.” 

 

“Then how are you so sure that she was here?” Pressed Octavius gently. 

 

“I smelled her! In my room! Only my mummy wears that perfume!” Insisted the tiny Egyptian

 

“But you didn’t see her?” Repeated the roman doggedly.

 

“No.” Ahkmen sniffed miserably as he wiped his nose on his sleeve. “But I smelled her so she had to be here! She had to! So why did she leave me?!”

 

“Ahklet,” interjected Jed, “no momma would leave her baby boy behind. I promise.” 

 

“But she-!”

 

“You didn’t see her did you? Only smelled her?” Octavius was like a dog with a bone. Jed wondered what he was upto, he had that look in his eyes that meant he was working on a plan that he really hoped actually succeeded. 

 

“It was her perfume! I KNOW it was!” Exploded the child indignantly.

 

Octavius remained calm and but firm in his questioning, “But you didn’t see her, my prince, how many worlds are there?”

 

The question pulled Ahkmen up short. 

 

“I don’t know.” He admitted in a smaller voice.  

 

“There are many,” stated the roman hoping he sounded wise enough to pull this off, “more than you and I could count even if we did nothing else for the rest of our days. You mother was not here.”

 

“But she-!”

 

“She was not here my prince,” Repeated Octavius with all the certainty he could muster. It was impossible, people didn’t just appear here, come to life at night yes but appear out of thin air? No, that was surely beyond the tablet and right now he utterly refused to entertain that the child’s fears were well founded, no, he would not accept that but he had do something along with the truth, just knowing she wasn’t here was not enough, especially for such a young one who is convinced he had been abandoned, “She was not here,” he repeated solemnly, “I promise you but her love for you was.” 

 

Ahkmen blinked in shock, “What?”

 

Jed actually held his breath, trust it to Octy to try and deal with this with cool Roman logic however, the last comment? That was completely unexpected. Octavius now had the all the hopes of one little boy riding on the next sentence to come out of his mouth. Jed’s heart began to pound in his throat, willing Octavius to come up with the goods for everyone’s sake. Though Jed knew if anyone could pull this kind of debate off, it was his best friend.

 

“There are lots of different worlds with lots of different people inhabiting them my prince,” Explained Octavius patiently, “we are in this one at the behest of the Gods, all of us, even myself and Jedediah here. This is but one world. Your mother and father are in another at the moment. Normally these worlds do not cross paths but sometimes, very, very rarely someone in one world loves someone else in another so much that something of them crosses over.” 

 

Octavius pressed his point before Ahkmen could question him further.       

 

“You could smell your mother’s perfume because she loves you so very much, she wasn’t here herself but she was thinking about you, thinking about you and how much she loves you and that’s why you smell her. You see? She has not abandoned you little one, she was thinking about how much she loves you.” 

 

“Truly?” Ahkmen’s eyes had grown as round as saucers, full of tentative hope. 

 

“You have my word as a Roman Officer.” Stated Octavius as proudly as he could, saluting and bowing for good measure.  

 

“Yeah, Octavius is right Ahklet.” Jed had just about managed to recover himself from the frankly awed disbelief as his friend convinced the heartbroken little boy that in fact all was actually well. Jed felt his heart pound harder with every word the roman spoke, he had no idea Octavius was so good with kids, or at least at comforting them nor apparently did the butterflies that had taken up residence in his belly. 

 

“Only a real powerful love can make itself felt like that, you’re a lucky lil’tyke. Your momma loves you sure as the moon an’ no mistake.” 

 

Ahkmen wiped his nose and eyes on his very soggy sleeve before breaking out into a beaming smile. If Jed and Octavius said it was true then it had to be, they were grown-ups from another world, if anyone knew what had really happened it was them. 

 

“Thank you! So she does still love me? She didn’t leave me?” he had to make absolutely sure.

 

“Yes partner, she loves you very much. You’re her baby boy. She’d never leave you. She’ll always love you.”

 

“Jedediah speaks the truth my prince, a mother’s love is absolute, infallible and unwavering.”

 

At the smile Octavius let himself relax, he had led armies into battle against insurmountable odds and still won and yet, that had been one of the most taxing challenges of his life.

 

“So, partner,” eased Jed, “now we got all that cleaned up what do you say to us showing you round a bit here?”

 

“Yes please!”

 

Bless the cowboy and his ability to distract little ones, he was at a total loss at to what to say next. Octavius never like to admit how much it made his heart pound to see Jed handling a problem effortlessly, he was truly a remarkable man. He was very glad to call him friend though part of him wished to call him something else. Love came in all ways, shapes and sizes after all, all just as real as each other.

 

Between Jed, Octavius and the rest of their diorama’s they managed to keep Ahkmen occupied, the little boy asking a repeat of all the questions he asked on his first night in the museum this time though he asked in English. It didn’t mean he slowed down at all.

 

After about half an hour Attila appeared quietly in the diorama room. He stepped over to join them, spending in the next ten minutes listening to Ahkmen introduce him to both the roman and western dioramas. The Hun listened patiently, amused at the child’s enthusiasm despite the yawns that were punctuating his explanations at increasing intervals.

 

After a while Ahkmen came over to Attila and crawled into his lap, cuddling up to the ferocious Hun warlord. “M’tired.”

 

“Sleep then little one, safe now.”

 

The little boy looked up sorrowfully at the huge man then across to the miniatures. “I can’t sleep yet, I was mean to Moon-Mother.” He admitted shamefacedly he couldn’t go to sleep with that crime still weighing on him.

 

“Oh? What did you do Ahkmen?”

 

“I—”

 

“C’mon little buddy, you can tell us.”

 

“I-I pushed her away when I came to find you, she wasn’t mummy and I wanted my mummy and not her and, and I pushed her away! She’ll be so cross!”

 

The little boy began to cry again, burying his face into Attila’s chest, horrified that he had been such a bad boy to Moon Mother who was only ever kind to him.

 

“Aww, hey, Ahklet, Sac-” He corrected himself quickly, “Moon Mother will understand. You just gotta say you’re sorry.”

 

“Indeed, she will forgive you.” Agreed Octavius, he couldn’t imagine Sacagawea staying angry for long for such an action. There had been rather extenuating circumstances after all.

 

“Sac, mother of moons is very loving little one, she will still love you.” Attila rocked Ahkmen gently, cuddling the child closer having picked out the unspoken issue that was also worrying the tiny Egyptian. 

 

Both Jed and Octavius quietly resented the hell out of the fact that once again they weren’t big enough to cuddle the boy themselves. Octavius didn’t figure on himself being much good with children but seeing Ahkmen upset had kicked untested paternal instincts in him, or at least very, very old instincts. He hadn’t been near children in 54 years of his time in the museum and another 15 of his own remembered life when he’d last visited his sister on a rare bought of leave from the army. She’d had a whole brood of little ones who were always clamouring for a story from their centurion uncle which he had dutifully supplied. He hadn’t thought on them for years, hadn’t let himself if he were honest. He hoped wherever they were now they were happy. He tried to ignore the clench in his heart as he focused on the issue at hand.

 

“Attila is right my prince, there will be time tomorrow to see her and apologise, I know she will be very gracious.”

 

“What he means is that Moon Mother will give you a big hug and kiss tomorrow the second you say sorry okay? But it’s time for bed now, your eyes ain’t going to stay open much longer.”

 

It was at that moment Sacagawea who’d been watching quietly from the edge of the room having followed on the child’s heels. She had been listening from the moment Octavius had begun to make his original speech to Ahkmen made herself known.

 

“Hello Ahkmen, did you want to speak to me?”       

 

Ahkmen sat bolt upright. “Moon Mother?”

 

“I’m here.” She stepped carefully over to where Attila was sat, in view of Jed and Octavius, “I’m here little moon.”

 

Ahkmen launched himself out of Attila’s lap and threw himself at Sacagawea, “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to push you! I was bad! I’m sorry I wanted my mummy but I didn’t mean to be bad!”

 

Sac wrapped him up in her arms. “It’s alright little moon, it’s alright, I know you were upset. Thank you for saying you’re sorry. I forgive you and I absolutely still love you.” She kissed his cheek to seal her words. “Your mother loves you very much Ahkmen, wherever she is and she would never abandon you.”

 

“I know. Jed and Octavius told me. And Attila.”

 

“Then they are all right. They know things like this.”

 

Ahkmen nodded earnestly in agreement.

 

“Are you ready to go to bed now?”

 

“Can they come?” The little boy looked beseechingly at the miniatures, Attila and Sac.

 

“Why don’t you ask them?”

 

“Please?”

 

Who could say no to that face? Especially after all the trauma of today.

 

“Sure thing, we can be up for a little bedtime duty, can’t we Octy?”

 

“Of course.”

 

“See? We’re up for this, you joining us big guy?”

 

“Bedtime means best stories!” Enthused Attila.

 

“Looks like you got three for tonight Sac.” Grinned Jed, tipping his hat.

 

What followed was possibly the most raucous bedtime yet seen in the museum, between daring tales of battles, frontier life and great endeavours Ahkmen was full of beans and bouncing, shrieking with excitement at every action any one of them pulled, even Octavius threw himself into regaling some of his more exciting experiences. The fact that Teddy joined in half way through seeing it entirely as part of his ‘Papa Bear’ role which he took very seriously (and was rather trying to make up for missing the trauma of the earlier part of the evening)

 

It was just what Ahkmen needed.

 

Sacagawea quietly made the decision that if they ever wanted Ahkmen to sleep ever again these four men were never allowed to be in the same room for bedtime. Or at least, not when she was in charge of the evening.

 

They did manage to tire him out, fifteen minutes before dawn he was in the middle of chirping out something himself before it was like a switch had been flicked, very like the first night he’d been in the museum. Jed and Octavius were more prepared this time but it still unnerved them. Attila, annoyingly to them, was completely unfazed.

 

“Why’d you not freak out?” Asked Jed, mildly accusing.

 

“Babies just stop when tired.” The Hun answered nonchalantly. Oh right, Attila was a dad too, he’d seen his kids go through this stage.

 

As it was there was no time to expand on this, Sac had to take the cowboy and the roman and run to make it to place in time.

 

Despite the close call neither miniature nor Hun could recall a better night for a long time. Jed and Octavius hoped for many more to come, getting the chance to learn more about each other in the process, the stories shared had been eye opening for both of them.

 

***

 

The next night all had calmed down a little. The museum was still infused with all of the scents which most of the inhabitants enjoyed. Ahkmen, whilst reassured by the words of last night was still reminded harshly that he wasn’t home, he wasn’t going to go home any time soon and even though his mummy loved him very much, very much going by how strongly his room smelled of her she still wasn’t _here._

 

He prayed as hard as he could that morning, praying to his gods to let his time here be short, even if he did love everyone here, they weren’t his mummy and daddy and he missed them very, very badly. He could smell home but he couldn’t go there.

He had been rather subdued most of the evening, despite everyone’s best efforts, Lewis and Clark had taken him for an adventure far away from any of the lingering  perfumes of the lower floors of the museum which had certainly helped, it was fair to say that even subdued, Ahkmen was still a remarkably bouncy child. 

 

This continued until Martha approached him about half an hour before bedtime, then everyone saw him regain his vigour.

 

“Hello Ahkmen how are you today?”

 

“Hello Martha!” Ahkmen lit up, he hadn’t seen her for a while and she had become somewhat of an honorary grandmother to him. He did his usual greeting of flinging his arms around whatever he could reach of the person and hugging them like his life depended on it. “I’m very well thank you! I’ve been exploring with Lewis and Clark! We did mapping and counting and drawing and they let me climb the big shelves because I want to be like Spiderman when I’m big and I have to practice because if I don’t I won’t be able to climb and swing like him and save people like a proper hero but I’ll have to tell Moon-Mother and Papa Bear where I go and make sure I’m back for bed in time to have a story.” 

 

He was beaming at her the whole while he was babbling. 

 

She was pretty certain he managed all that on one breath too. 

 

“Well that’s exciting.” 

 

“It was!” 

 

“Well, I’ve been busy too”. 

 

“Have you been exploring too?!” Asked the child with wonder in his eyes. 

 

“No, I’ve been doing something different.” 

 

“Was it nice?”

 

“Yes. And I thought I’d show you”

 

“Yes Please!”

 

“Well I’ve been making something-”

 

“Like the blankets for the outside peasants?”

 

“They’re not peasants Ahkmen,” she corrected gently, “they’re people who are homeless and need help keeping warm.” They’d explained the outside as a place where people who served the gods generally lived and he accepted that without much contestation. 

 

“They should live in Egypt-it’s warm there.” 

 

“I’ll tell them next time I see them. Anyway, I’ve not made a blanket this time, I’ve made something very special.” 

 

Ahkmen’s eyes grew round as saucers. 

 

“Really?”

 

“Oh yes, and I want you to tell me what you think.” With that Martha drew a small figure from behind her back. 

 

A hand knitted grey teddy bear stood in Martha’s hands, she’d worked in the softest wool Larry could find, with little white paws and snout and inner ears. 

 

“What is it?” asked Ahkmen, fascinated at the shy little creature. The teddy, thanks to the tablet was alive. Standing very shyly, it waved one little paw nervously. 

 

“This is a teddy bear Ahkmen.” 

 

“Tetti?” 

 

“A teddy.” 

 

“Hello!” said Ahkmen, trying to be gentle aware the creature looked more than a little scared. “My name is Ahkmen, would you like to be my friend Teti?”

 

The bear nodded eagerly. It spread its arms wide. Ahkmen needed no more encouragement and swept up the creature in a hug. Ahkmen was actually very gentle seeing that the bear was still quite scared of the whole situation. Teti cuddled back happily, silent but obviously just as loving. 

 

“I’m glad you like her”. 

 

“She’s very lovely.” 

 

“I made her for you.” 

 

“For, for me?” The child looked astounded.

 

“Yes, I thought you might like someone to share your bedtime and explore the museum with.” 

 

Ahkmen looked like the Sun actually shone out of his face, “Thank you!” He cuddled into Martha as well as Teti, kissing her very affectionately on the cheek. 

 

“She’s the best ever! Thank you!” 

 

“You’re very welcome Ahkmen, you’ve been a brave boy since you got here, especially last night and I wanted you to have a special friend you could share the museum with.” 

 

“Thank you!” He turned to Teti. “I can show you lots of things! And I have a nice bed I sleep in, there’s stories too if we go to bed in time! Papa Bear, Jed, Octavius and Attila tell the best stories! 

 

Teti hugged Ahkmen back with equal affection. 

 

Seeing the two of them together became a common sight, Teti usually in Ahkmen’s hand or poking out of his chest pocket on his dungarees. He loved her fiercely and she him. They could always be found cuddled up together at the end of the night, Teti guarding her friend’s dreams until the magic faded once more.

 

** ***  **

 

Even much later, when Ahkmenrah returned to his grown form, resuming his original regal and dignified state, determined to be seen as an adult, utterly and categorically once more he kept the loving little bear, still comforted by her in the darkness before dawn. Larry never said a word the few times he’d seen grown Ahk, fast asleep in his sarcophagus cuddling Teti like she was the last thing on earth. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading this! Please let me know what you think!  
> I apologise once again for the slowness of my updates at the moment, I’m so grateful you guys are sticking with me through this, I promise my rate will pick up again soon!  
> The last paragraph is meant to show Ahkmenrah does return to us fully grown once more but that’s not going to happen yet, it’s in both the exhibits and our futures! Sorry to get your hopes up but me and Ahkmen have a lot more to get done before Ahkmenrah makes a reappearance!  
> I should also say, Ahkmen calling for his mummy is a Britishism, I’m Midland British and we say mum/mummy rather than mom/mommy or mam/mammy. Since Ahkmenrah usually speaks with an English accent I’ve headcannoned that he would say mummy rather than mommy!


	4. Of Painting and Bubble Baths...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is almost a sense of routine in the museum after the event known only as 'The Perfume Disaster' but of course, there's always something that crops up to mess up Larry's evening...
> 
> A chapter in which Ahkmen paints, ill advised people help, Larry is distracted, Teti is sensible and bubbles are copious!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my lovelies!  
> I am so very sorry for the horrible lack of updates, to say my life has been busy since Halloween would be the understatement of the decade and on top of my full-time job, getting settled in the new house, the NATM Big Bang Challenge and my other hobby picking up in responsibility I also ended up having to do and finish a qualification in a very short space of time which turned out to equal a similar amount of work to two English A Levels. Phew.  
> I really, REALLY wanted to get my Christmas special out in time for Christmas eve but it’s just not going to happen as I’ve got at least 2 more chapters to go so you all might get a festive update in February! Sorry! :’(  
> So I do apologise for my utter lack of regular updates, I’ve had some rubbish writers block too.   
> Thank you to everyone for your kudos and comments- you guys have been absolutely keeping me going! This chapter is mostly made of fluff to make up for last chapter’s angstier tone. And to all new people-Hello! I hope you like this chapter, join in on the fluffy family train!  
> For this chapter I have been blessed with a glorious piece of fanart done by the ever-lovely Remy! You can find it at the end of the chapter! :)

**Of painting and bubble baths…**

Larry and his closest friends amongst the exhibits had fallen into somewhat of a pattern over the last two weeks or so, finding themselves not entirely terrible at looking after a lost little boy.

To be fair it did help that Ahkmen, for most of the time was the sunniest child any of them had ever encountered. He was just so excited not to be constrained by the rules of ‘ _what a prince should do’_ all the time. Here, in the halls of the gods as he called the museum, the exhibits were more than happy to let him play. He loved having partners to play with of course but he could usually be happily occupied on his own so long as there was an adult nearby to keep an eye on him.

What also helped was that Ahkmen, being (unbeknowningstly to himself of course) 4000 years old there was a lot of stuff most of the museum could take for granted that Ahkmen was entranced by.

Thankfully the little boy was mostly absorbed by colour play, the fact that he could use crayons, colour pencils and even paints to make pictures in so many different colours and shades had him happily ensconced in his colouring books and plain paper for hours.

Larry had never been happier to spend $20 getting the child all the basic art supplies he could ever possibly need.

And his artwork was pretty good, he did everything in side-view Egyptian style of course but it was easy to work out who was who when he was drawing them although, interestingly he always drew Jed and Octavius full sized.

He’d always respected them of course but since they’d comforted him after the perfume disaster they’d become somewhat heroes to the little boy who was convinced they were experts on everything to do with other realms. On the plus side this meant Larry could leave Ahkmen in their care and have no issues, Ahkmen responded to them as full grown adults and did as they asked him. It rather tickled the pair of them to be so clearly included in Ahkmen’s sphere of influence. On the down side this meant he asked them one hundred and one questions nearly constantly to the point that on occasion even Jed needed a break.

Which was why Larry was on Ahkmen duty tonight for a least a few hours, Teddy and Sac were exhausted, Ahkmen was a real ball of energy most of the time, they’d yet to have a crash night like Ahkmenrah would have every few weeks so currently, Ahkmen was up and bouncing with the sunset and going to bed around 2 or 3am. Since the perfume disaster as Larry called it Ahkmen had limpeted to Sac and Teddy far more than usual. They of course were happy to have him but even the most dedicated of parents needed a break, not to mention the fact that they still had Jean Baptiste to look after who, whilst was usually very docile, still needed his mummy and daddy too. Who knew wax and polyurethane could get tired? Ahkmen seemed to have actually set a new precedent.

The other exhibits pitched in where they could but there were times only Moon Mother or Papa Bear would do. Teddy and Sac were learning to take full advantage when he could be entertained by others at the moment. They reasoned it was a phase that would pass but admitted the child did at least have a good reason to be so clingy.

Tonight was a rare peace, Sac and Teddy had told him they had a few grown up things to do and asked would he be a big boy and do some drawings for them whilst they were busy? Ahkmen took a moment to process before asking, could he do them a painting instead?

Since he hadn’t even sniffled at the idea of them leaving him for a length of time they agreed easily once Larry had pointed out they had some plastic sheeting they could put down first.

Ahkmen was getting a lot better around Larry now, not brilliant but better, he no longer called him _‘not-demon’_ which Larry took as a plus, sometimes Ahkmen called him ‘Nicky’s Daddy’ and other times he was ‘Guardian’. That one freaked Larry out since it was beyond weird to be called the same thing by the same person in a completely different voice. Larry found he was really unsettled whenever Ahkmen in his piping little voice uttered something he’d heard Ahkmenrah say in his usual smooth authoritative tone.

So here he was, doing his finances at the main desk at the American Museum of Natural History at 1am after having been carefully explained to by a youthenised 4000 year old pharaoh in a very serious voice that the animated, _knitted_ teddy bear couldn’t join in the painting because her paws weren’t big enough or grippy enough to hold the paintbrushes so she could only watch.

Larry didn’t even question his life anymore. It just brought about too many headaches.

Ahkmen was bibbling to Teti about what he was painting and where colours came from in the palace. Anna had shown Ahkmen how to mix paints to get different colours and he’d been so happy he’d kissed her in sloppy but heartfelt gratitude. Larry had added it to the list to gently tease Ahk about when he returned to them full grown once he got over the inevitable shock. It was becoming more and more obvious that Ahkmenrah hadn’t had the nicest of childhoods and they as the museum were determined to make sure he was looked after, he was so freely affectionate in this state too. Larry hoped that if they went down the route of making light of it, that it was appreciated by the exhibits then the grown pharaoh might lose some of his lingering formality. It was interesting and kind of heartbreaking to see just how physical he used to be in terms of affection.

That was another thing, he owed Martha a medal for creating Ahkmen a companion to play with. Having Teti around made their lives a hell of a lot easier. He now had a pocket friend to talk to whenever there was a lack of other playmates, plus she smelt of the museum rather than his exhibit which did him no end of good, reinforcing at least that the museum was a safe place, home from home and filled with friends.

So yes, so far this evening all was peace and quiet with a bubbling background of happy chatter.

“Larry, could you spare a moment?” The quiet, cultured voice broke Larry’s concentration.

“Hey John, what’s up?”

“There’s an issue with the windows on the east side of the second floor, myself and Hazel noticed as we were walking by, someone has forgotten to lock them, I don’t think anything has escaped but we thought you ought to know, we would have dealt with it ourselves but we do not have a key. Hazel has remained to stand guard to avoid any incidents but as you can see, it’s a matter that requires urgent tending!”

Larry immediately snapped into night guard mode, remembering the horror and an open window brought, “Yeah, absolutely, I’ll come now, which ones are open?

“It would be quicker if I were to show you.”

John had a point, there were hundreds of windows, even on just one floor, “Um, right.” He turned his gaze to happily occupied little boy, “Hey, Ahkmen?”

The child looked up from his painting, “Yes Guardian?”

“I have to go and deal with a problem. I will be back in fifteen minutes,” he held up his hands to indicate how long that was in fingers, “do you promise to be a good boy and paint quietly? I’ll be right back.”

“Yes Guardian, I promise.”

“Good boy.”

Ahkmen went straight back to telling Teti about something that happened in the palace. He did that a lot, like he was trying to catch her up on everything about his life. Larry usually tried to listen when he could, determined in case he picked up something useful that could help him with Ahkmen now.

With one last look over the scene Larry left with John planning on returning before the child even missed him.

***

Ahkmen carried on chatting to Teti, telling her all about the palace. He loved Teti, she was a very good listener and she gave good cuddles. He’d painted her a picture to show how much he loved her, he hoped when he went back to the palace he could take Teti and his pictures. He’d painted several of life in the museum so he could show his mummy and daddy when he saw them again. He’d painted Rexy the baby Sobek servant, Moon-Mother and Papa Bear and Jumble (He’d not quite cracked Jean-Baptiste’s name yet, tripping over the sounds so that ‘Jumble’ became the nearest approximation) He’d painted Jed and Octavius, full sized and holding hands and Anna and Ragnar also holding hands. He’d even done one of Nicky and his Guardian daddy because he after thinking he was a demon for a while La-ree Guardian turned out to be really quite nice, he was kind and made him sandwiches. Despite this Ahkmen did his best not to upset Larry because he still wasn’t sure if he might try to bury him alive again if he was displeased with the little boy. You couldn’t be too careful with Guardians he thought, especially if they held the keys to journeys between the realms of the living and the dead.

But all too soon he’d run out of paper to paint more pictures on. He tried to embellish his existing ones but there was only so much he could do before he had to let them dry.

Ahkmen sat and pondered what to do next.

_“I’ve done all my painting Teti but Guardian said I was to be a good boy and paint quietly but I can’t! I don’t have anything left to paint, I need to be good or I’ll be bad and have to sit on my own and I don’t like being on my own!”_ Teti climbed onto his lap consolingly, listening even as Ahkmen spoke Egyptian, something he did whenever he was on his own and unsure of things, _“You’re right, princes don’t panic. Let’s think. I need to paint to be good but I can’t paint anything but the paper, everyone will be cross if I paint the floor.”_ There was happy yelping and grunting coming from around the corner, Ahkmen hit on a brilliant idea, _“I could share my paints! The stone men like colours! They like the crayon pictures but they don’t have colours of their own! I could share with them! They’re grown ups and they have their own space to paint in! They’ll like these paints too! Come on Teti! Let’s share!”_

Ahkmen, being the second son of the pharaoh had always had plenty of toys to play with in the palace but he was decidedly lacking in playmates, sometimes a child of a dignitary would be allowed to play with him and even rarer he’d get to play with some of the servant’s children but that was not encouraged. There were very few children in the palace that were near his age so sharing things was quite a novelty to Ahkmen, he wasn’t a greedy child and much preferred playmates to actual resources, his imagination was fertile enough to be a resource on its own. Picking up Teti, his paints and his brushes he trotted off to the cavemen display around the corner to see if they wanted to paint with him.

***

Larry was not gone 15 minutes.

He was gone for more like an hour and 15 minutes.

The window had indeed been left open but that was only the start of the issue, it had been left open because the catch had broken completely, someone on the day staff hadn’t reported it and now Larry was stuck with a way out into the wider world and certain doom to any exhibit who might try their luck.

It became the only thing in his mind to deal with, memories of losing the fourth caveman on his second night still kept him up in the day sometimes, the guilt threatening to crush his chest.

By the time he, John and Hazel had fixed the window securely time had snuck away from him. Realising with a jolt of horror when checked his watch he offered a quick thanks to the settlers before taking off at run to get back to the little boy he was supposed to be looking after.

Ahkmen was not where he had left him.

The desk area was completely bereft of children.

Larry was about to curse colourfully and creatively in regards to Egyptian Pharaohs and never staying where you damn well put them before his eyes fell on the collection of paintings laid out neatly on the plastic sheeting to dry. All 20 sheets of art paper had been dutifully and diligently adorned with paint. Kid actually had some talent, all the pictures were either scenes that were clearly from the palace or were from things in the museum. He could recognise all the exhibits that had been rendered (side on of course) even himself with his maglight. There was a particularly sweet one where there was a small procession of Teddy followed by Sac followed by a figure who was clearly Ahkmen who was followed by a crawling Jean-Baptiste. Everyone was smiling and holding hands.

After taking in all the images of exhibits, palace life, a picture of who were clearly Ahkmen’s own parents (Ahkmen had painted himself securely between the two of them with what was obviously a teenage Kahmunrah off to the left, still part of the family group but there was something sour about his body language.) On top of all this Larry also noticed that the box of paints and paint brushes had gone.

Great, so his charge was not only on the loose but he was armed. Where the hell did he start looking?! He’d probably be able to trace him by the painted walls, he was an ancient Egyptian after all, walls were totally fair game to use as canvases.

Dr McPhee was going to kill him.

A peel of laughter rang out, high-pitched and decidedly childlike.

Larry made a beeline for the sound, hurtling round the corner only to come skidding to a halt in front of the caveman’s exhibit.

They were re-decorating.

Or more to the point, decorating the side of their ‘cave’. Wow. Turned out the cavemen were pretty good artists themselves. Scenes of bison and mammoth herds graced the side of the cave, expertly rendered in natural hues. They’d used the brighter colours of Ahkmen’s paint box to highlight aspects of their landscape, the tips of the stone spears, the glow of the fire in the gatherings they’d painted of other people, probably their own families thought Larry. They’d created a frankly majestic scene of life in the Palaeolithic. Even if McPhee didn’t approve of the fact the cave had been decorated outside of his watch he couldn’t argue with the content. It was breathtaking.

What was more of an issue was the addition of side-view cats and Pyramids at the bottom of the cave wall being diligently illustrated by an enthusiastic Ahkmen.

“Ahkmen”

The little boy turned around.

Make that an enthusiastic and COMPLETELY PAINT SMEARED Ahkmen.

Larry launch into an exasperated tirade before he could stop himself, “What have you been doing?! How are you this covered?! The cavemen aren’t nearly as messy as you?! How? How on earth are you this messy?!”

Ahkmen froze, gripping his brush in painty hands, eyes wide with fright as his bottom lip began to wobble. “You said I had to paint to be good and, and  I wanted to be good but I ran out of paper so I shared with the stone men and they liked it and painted and painted me too for sharing and I tried to paint with them but this stone isn’t smooth and, and I’m sorry! Don’t bury me alive again!” The little boy burst into tears at the last rushed-out sentence, huddling in on him, burying his face in his hands. Teti, sat back from the chaos, looked outraged.

“Whoa what?!” That went from naught to crazy-disturbing in record time.

Parental instinct took over, Ahkmen looked genuinely terrified of him so Larry quickly dropped to his knees to look less intimidating.

“Hey, buddy, I need you to listen, why do you think I’ll bury you alive?”

“Be-because,” the little boy began, trying to swallow his tears and failing miserably, “I was bad and made you angry and, and, last time was I bad when you were there you took me to be buried!” Sobbed Ahkmen

Larry was reeling, “What?! When?!.” The cavemen had frozen, watching in horror as the child cried, all them urging the night guard to do SOMETHING to stop the terror that was pouring out of the little boy. They would have done something themselves but they always bowed to Larry when issues like this cropped up. He was the bringer of fire, he knew the secret ways of the others, they of the land of wilds would defend their home when it was needed but if there were others to care for young then they would respect their ways. 

“When I first got here, I fought Papa Bear!” Wailed Ahkmen, “Then I woke up and you were carrying me to be buried! I’m sorry!” He threw himself at Larry, sobbing fit to burst, “I didn’t mean to be bad! I was trying to be good! I was! I promise! I’m sorry!”

Larry wrapped his arms about the painty child, “Shh, Ahkmen, it’s okay, it’s okay.”

The little boy clung on, crying his heart out, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

Larry cuddled the boy for a moment before pulling him back slightly to make sure he had the child’s full attention. “Ahkmen.”

“Y-Y-Yes?” Ahkmen’s eyes was huge and grey and miserable, swimming with tears, face blotchy and smeared.

Larry paused to pull a hanky from his pocket, mopping up the sopping child as best as he could, not entirely believing he had to say his next sentence, “Listen, Ahkmen, I will never bury you alive. Okay?” The child’s eyes widened, “Oh wow, he actually had to say it. “I promise, I swear to Ra himself I will never bury you alive no matter how mad I get okay?”

“Really?” Ahkmen looked so hopeful it nearly broke Larry’s heart, he’d had no idea Ahkmen still thought being severely punished by him was an option, it had been three weeks!

“Yes, really,” Promised Larry fixing the child with the most sincere look he could muster, “I swear Ahkmen, I’d never do ANYTHING like that, if you’re bad you have to sit on your own to think about what you’ve done. Remember?”

“That’s only what Moon-Mother said!” pointed out the frightened child, still convinced of something terrible about to befall him.

“Well it goes for the rest of us grown-ups okay? If you’re bad, we’ll tell you, we’ll explain why what you did was bad and then how long you have to sit on your own for okay? None of us will ever hurt you okay? We’ll never hit you. I’m sorry I yelled at you just now, I was worried about you, I didn’t know where you were and I was scared you could be hurt.”

“Oh.” Ahkmen took a moment to process before adding in earnest, “I’m sorry! I was trying to paint to be good, you said I had to paint to be good!”

Larry thought back, Oh crap, he had hadn’t he? He’d not told Ahkmen to stay put but to be a good boy and keep painting. Right. He should have known, very literal child. “Okay, it’s okay, I know what I said and yes you were trying to be good so thank you for that. Now we need to try and get you clean before bedtime don’t we?”

“Clean?” The little boy looked confused.

“Yeah, Ahkmen, you are more paint than person right now.”

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to!” Panic filled him again, reminded that he had inadvertently misbehaved.

“I know buddy, I know,” Larry reassured quickly, “now shall we get you cleaned up?” It was something he’d been trying to avoid since Ahkmenrah’s regression. Ahk, when he was grown, during the night, was human. Which meant that whilst he was always returned to prime condition each morning by the tablet’s power he could still get dirty, still sweat during the evening. Or as Ahkmenrah had put it himself, “I may still perspire if I exert myself extensively.” 

That had been an interesting conversation, very early on in Larry’s tenure-ship over the museum and Ahk’s freedom from his sarcophagus.

“Dude what even are you saying?”

“It is rather unbecoming to admit but I would ask that you be so kind as to provide me with an opportunity for ablutions?”

Larry continued to stare at Ahk blankly, “I have literally no idea what you’re talking about.”

Ahk rolled his eyes in a decidedly teenage manner before snapping an annoyance, “I need to wash! Is that so hard to understand?!” Larry looked shocked, wide-eyed in surprise at the pharaoh’s outburst. Ahk felt his stomach drop, guilt flooding him, “I-I-I’m sorry, I didn’t, that, that was rude of me.” He conceded, “Please forgive me.”

“Er, right,” Larry gathered himself, trying to process everything, it was rare Ahk let the more youthful, more grumpy side of his nature out, this meant that the issue at hand was important to the young man. “It’s cool man, er, so washing right? Washing is a thing that needs to happen?”

Ahkmenrah looked decidedly uncomfortable. Larry was reminded of the fact that Pharaoh’s, that _Ahk_ , had been raised not to believe himself human, not to be confined by human needs. “If it would not be too much trouble? I, I fear I have not had the chance to ask in a long time and I mislike the sensation of grime.”

“Dude, it’s cool, I was a teenager once too you know.”

“I am not—”

“You’re eighteen Ahk—” Cut in Larry.

“Four thousand and—” Ahk huffed back.

“I don’t care.” Countered Larry before Ahk could expand on his point, “You, right now, physically as you are in front of me are eighteen years old. And I was eighteen too once so I know all about feeling gross so you’re going not argue with me and follow me so I can show you where the shower is.”

“I wasn’t going to argue! I—” Argued Ahk before he caught up to Larry’s words, curiosity getting the better of him, “What’s a shower?”

Larry grinned, amused he’d captured Ahk’s attention with a single word, “Come on and I’ll show you.”

Larry had left Ahk with both instructions and towels as well as shower gel and shampoo. He couldn’t help waiting around outside the door just to make sure all was well before he left Ahk to his privacy.

The young man yelped in shock.

Larry responded immediately, ready to leap into action, “Ahk are you—”

“I’m FINE!” Yelled the Pharaoh through the door, “I am perfectly fine, I was just surprised by the temperature that is all. Do NOT come in here!”

“Ahk, dude, I won’t, I promise. Just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

“I am fine Guardian!” snapped the young Pharaoh.

“Okay, okay, I’ll leave you to it.”

“Thank you. I shall rejoin you all shortly. And Larry?”

“Yeah?”

Ahkmenrah’s voice softened into real gratitude but still making himself heard above the rush of water, “Thank you, for this. It is very much appreciated.”

“Anytime buddy. See you later.”

Which was why Larry had been avoiding the need to wash Ahkmen. Ahkmenrah was an intensely private person, valuing that privacy deeply and he guarded it ferociously. The idea of having to bath Ahkmen now would send grown Ahkmenrah into a pitched fit when he returned on the scene. Oh this was going to be bad.

“By the Great Spirit what have you been doing?!” Sacagawea looked horror struck, Jean Baptiste in her arms whose little face lit up at the sight of his adoptive big brother.

“I’ve been painting Moon Mother!”

“So I see.” Sac looked less than impressed at her adoptive son, who was more Pollock than prince as he stood before her.

Ahkmen visibly wilted, “M’sorry. I didn’t mean to get so messy.”

Larry defended him, “Well, Sac, it’s not actually his fault, kinda mine, mostly the cavemen.”

Sacagawea sighed, of course it was the cavemen, they could never keep things tidy. “Come on then. Time for a bath.”

Ahkmen beamed at the magic word. Interesting thought Larry, it was clearly a core trait of Ahk’s to like being clean.  “A bath!? I can have a bath here?!”

“Yes, there is a sink big enough in the room next to the kitchen, come with me.” She offered her hand.

Ahkmen fairly trilled in joy. Sac reached to take one painty hand.

Oh this was going to be bad, really BAD. “Whoa, whoa there.”

“What? What is it?” Sac looked mildly exasperated by the hold up.

“Ahkmen can you get your paints from the cavemen first please?”  Asked Larry, trying to buy some quick adult conversation time. The little boy nodded, skipping over to the cave dwellers dutifully, “I think I should take Ahkmen for this.” Explained Larry once the child was out of ear-shot. 

Sac raised an eyebrow, “Why? It is no trouble, I thought you would be glad to escape.”

“Well yeah but no, since well this is going to be majorly awkward.”

“I understand, which is why I should—”

Larry shook his head, “No, Sac, no, not this time.”

“Why on earth not?” Sac was confused, “I have dressed him time and again. Bathing is little different.”

“Yeah, no, really is, look. I should take this one.” Continued Larry doggedly.  

“Why?”

“Well one, he is REALLY painted up. Two, I am sure that will not come out of a buckskin dress and no I don’t have anything else you can change into and three, Ahkmen’s a boy.”

Sac was unmoved, “So is Jean-Baptiste.”

“Yeah true, just, look, Sac, remember how private Ahkmenrah was, I mean is, when he’s grown? Imagine how he’s going to react when he remembers that you bathed him.”

“I am sister to him in all but blood, mother to him now as he is, how on earth could it matter?”

“It’s a guy thing, trust me. I promise you, he’s going to hate that he needed to be bathed by anyone but if you do it, it will make it a thousand times worse. I guarantee.”

Sacagawea was genuinely puzzled, “Why?”

“Because it’s a guy thing,” Larry repeated attempting to make his point clearer, “I am just trying to do damage control. You know Ahkmenrah hates to be seen as vulnerable. He couldn’t be in a more vulnerable state than in the bath. Please Sac, trust me.”

Sacagawea looked between Larry and the little boy who was bibbling to the cavemen. She knew in her heart of hearts that Larry was right, it would be far easier for Ahkmenrah to accept that kind of care from a male parental figure than from her. Much as it pained her to admit it.

She sighed, capitulating as gracefully as she could manage, “Whatever is best for our friend, I would rather not cause any more distress than there needs to be.”

“Thanks Sac, trust me I am not looking forward to Ahk remembering this bit of his return to innocence.”

“I wish you good luck then in that regard,” She paused, considering, looking over her son, “would you mind if I bathe Jean-Baptiste in that sink from time to time? Since I had not really thought about it before now, as he does not truly require it but I think he may enjoy the experience.”

Larry smiled, “No, I wouldn’t mind at all, it doesn’t matter if he needs it or not, I’m supposed to look after you guys aren’t I?”

“And you do a marvellous job, thank you.” She kissed him on the cheek for good measure. “I hope you have something to change into yourself Larry,” She eyed his paint smeared uniform, “Good luck, I’ll leave his nightclothes outside the door.” She turned, pausing to look at the artwork, “they did do a good job didn’t they? It looks like it was worth it for that creation.”

“I hope so.”

Sac smiled knowingly at him and with that quietly withdrew.

Yeah, good luck indeed. Actually, bathing Ahkmen wasn’t going to be a problem. It was the grown up aftermath he wasn’t looking forward to. Oh well. He’d deal with that angst when it happened. Larry was weirdly grateful for the bouts of teenage grumpiness and mild huffs he occasionally had had to field once Ahkmenrah had relaxed enough around them to let his true emotions flash to the surface. Mainly because it was a sign that he really was feeling comfortable with them, that he really was part of a family that wasn’t going to turn on him for any minor slip in manners or behaviour but also, it was kinda good practice for when Nicky hit that age. Nicky, Larry was certain, was ten going on forty but he knew that would only last so long and if he could get a bit of handle on teenager wrangling before he had to do it 24/7 that would be awesome.

“Right then Ahkmen, you ready to come get cleaned up and ready for bed?”

The child looked about, disappointed at who he didn’t see, “Where did Moon-Mother go?”

“She had to go look after Jean-Baptiste.”

Ahkmen looked worried, “Oh. Is Jumble alright?”

“Yeah, yeah he’s fine.” Assured Larry quickly.

“Can I still have a bath?” Clearly this was something Ahkmen was very keen on. Oh how like his grown self he really was, thought Larry, considering the earnest little boy in front of him.

He put on his best smile, “Sure.”

Ahkmen beamed, dashing up and taking Larry’s hand. “Thank you!”

“No problem kiddo.”

It didn’t take long to give the sink a quick clean and rinse off, filling it up with warm water and some of the milder shower gel that was in the next room.

“What’s THAT?!”

“What’s what?” Asked Larry before following Ahkmen’s excited finger.

Oh. Right, ancient Egyptian kindergarten. Of course this would be a thing.

“Can I play with them! Please? What are they? Are they for cleaning? Are they toys? Can you eat them? Can I please play with them?”

“Woah, woah there buddy! One sec and—”

He turned back to check he had in fact brought the towels in with him from the shower room before looking back at his excited charge.

His excited _naked_ charge.

Ahkmen had actually managed to divest himself of all his painted clothes and was currently hopping from foot to foot, almost fizzing in anticipation at the magical substance that was growing and glistening in the sink. Teti was watching from a safe distance, Ahkmen didn’t want her to get wet. She said she didn’t like water when he’d asked.

Oh. Boy.

This part he really wasn’t prepared for. ‘Pretend it’s Nicky, pretend it’s Nicky, don’t think about the fact it’s the kid version of your friend who will probably khopesh you into shish kabob the second he remembers any of this.’

“I’ll show you kiddo, let me lift you up and you can play with them.” Switching off his rational brain he scooped up the little boy, “dip your hand in the water first Ahkmen, let me know if it’s warm enough or too hot.”

Ahkmen dutifully dipped his hand. “It’s just right!”

Larry grinned despite himself at the Goldilocks reference, Ahkmen had loved that story, “Awesome. Okay, well you climb in, these are soap bubbles Ahkmen, you can’t eat them but you can use them to clean yourself.”

Ahkmen plonked himself into the water with an enthusiastic splash. He immediately began to play with the bubbles, blowing huge clumps into the air, smooshing some between his hands and whisking the water as soon as he realised it made more trilling happily all the while. Larry couldn’t help but laugh, Ahkmen was having the time of his life. He reminded Larry so much of Nicky at that age, except that Ahkmen talked more, a LOT more.

“What are these?! _They’re so_ _floophy!”_ He fell back into Egyptian in his excitement before remembering to use his English again, “Where do they come from? Who put the colours in them? How can they fly? Why are they popping? Are they hiding in the water? Do they hide in all water? Can I make more? Why can’t I eat them? Can I find them anywhere there’s water? I can make shapes with them look!”

Ahkmen emphasised his point by making a fairly passible pyramid.

Because of course he did.

Larry tried hard not to laugh before composing himself enough to respond, “Well, to answer,” Began Larry, taking a deep breath, “these are called bath bubbles, they’re in soap and you can use them to wash in. They’re not in any other water other than bath water and bubbles just pop because that’s what they do. No one puts colours in them, that’s just how they are (there was only so much science he was prepared to share with Ahkmen) and you can’t eat them because they’re made of soap and they don’t taste nice—”

“Urgh!”

“That wasn’t an invitation to lick them Ahkmen!” Larry made to grab Ahkmen’s hand but was too slow to stop the experimental tasting. “See? I told you they don’t taste nice!”

“Blergh!” Ahkmen screwed up his little face in disgust, “They don’t taste like soap! They’re all sharp and scratchy tasting!”

‘Huh, well,’ thought Larry, probably has a bucketload more chemicals now, “Well it’s what soap here tastes like,” he spoke aloud, “here,” he proffered a towel, “wipe your mouth on this and drink some water.”

“Thank you!” The small child took a hearty gulp of the offered water, giving Larry a chance to quietly freak out over the insanity of the situation, the fact that Ahkmen was just so damn happy being in a bath, currently buried up to his shoulders in bubbles, looking as though he was having the time of his life. If anything was going to bring home the idea that his friend Ahkmenrah was for the moment utterly and completely gone from the situation it was this sight of him, blowing into the bubbles and giggling as though he had no other care in the world. Larry had no idea if he’d ever get his friend back, the young man he considered as close as another son and that broke his heart. Much as he liked this little bundle of energy, Ahkmen was still not entirely sure of Larry, given the display earlier and that was just miserable. ‘Pull yourself together Daley, just deal with it and look after him. It’s what Ahk would do if it was you in his place.’ He was just finishing his internal pep talk when a handful of bubbles were smeared in his face.

“Why?”

“You looked sad Guardian. Don’t be sad, there’s bubbles! Bubbles are happy! See how fluffy they are!” Giggled the tiny princeling, clearly having got over his apparent fear of enraging Larry. Which was one good thing about this evening thought the put-upon night guard. Larry found that he couldn’t articulate an appropriate response to that so settled for scooping up a large handful and dumped them on Ahkmen’s head, “you’re right, they’re pretty fluffy!” He grinned.

Ahkmen squealed.

The resulting bubble/splash/washing fight was still going on when Teddy joined them ten minutes later.

“Good Lord!”

The scene was one he hadn’t been expecting. Lawrence was stripped down to his trousers and undershirt, dripping wet with bubbles splattering him and most of the washroom. Ahkmen, clearly very clean with all traces of paint washed free from him sat happily in a kingdom of bubbles, almost completely hidden by the white clouds.

“PAPA BEAR!” cried Ahkmen, delighted at Teddy’s appearance, “Come and play bubbles with us!”

Much as Teddy would actually love to join in his clothing wasn’t nearly so replaceable as the Night Guard uniform and he really didn’t want to inconvenience Lawrence, the man had a hard enough time with the director of the museum without being accused of gross misconduct. If there was time for another bath before Ahkmen left them then Teddy would ask if he may borrow some spare clothes, it was just wonderful to see Ahkmen so clearly happy and enjoying himself.

“I would love to my boy but it’s bed time! Maybe next time you can show me how to play,” He was impressed to note that despite the rather epic water fight that had taken place the Night Guard had obviously managed to wash Ahkmen’s hair thoroughly. He proffered a towel, “come on young man, time to get dry, did you wash yourself properly?”

“Yes! I even cleaned behind my ears! Look!”

Teddy was presented with an unquestionably clean set of ears.

Teddy ruffled the equally clean hair affectionately, “Good show my boy, well done!”

“Larr-ee-guardian washed my hair, he said I’d get soap in my eyes if I tried.”

“Well that was very kind of him wasn’t it? Did you say thank you?”

Ahkmen’s eyes widened, “No!” he realised horror-struck, he turned to face Larry, “THANK YOU!”

“You’re welcome Ahkmen, now, let’s get you out and ready for bed.” Larry took the towel from Teddy, holding it up to the little boy, Ahkmen stood, still completely obscured by the amount of bubbles in the sink. Larry wrapped the oversized towel around the child and lifted him easily clear of the water. Ahkmen trilled. It was funny thought Larry, how much Ahkmen reminded him of Nicky at that age, his arms obviously remembered, going straight back into pre-school size management.

Larry sat a fully towel-wrapped Ahkmen on his lap before grabbing another one to tackle the kid’s hair.

“May I assist you Lawrence?” Teddy was itching to help, it had been a very long time since he’d been around his own boys, he missed everyday fatherly duties like he would miss a limb.

“Yeah, sure, can you dry his hair?”

“Of course,” Teddy took off his hat and gloves, rolled up his sleeves as he set-to with vigour. 

“What brings you to our flood party anyway?” The question was asked nonchalantly enough but Teddy could hear the bite underlying it. Lawrence was annoyed at his intrusion, probably linked to his concern he expressed to Sacagawea. Oh well. Time to solve that issue.

“Sacagawea suggested I might be of use to you, something about male bonding and not traumatising our friend once he is grown once more.”

Larry sighed.

“She does rather have a point Lawrence,” pressed Teddy, correctly interpreting his sigh, “we are the closest thing our Ahkmenrah has in terms of paternal figures aside from his own father of course, if any of us are to see him vulnerable it would make sense it is the ones he already considers family, close family, leaving you, myself and Sacagawea as his primary carers.”

Teddy had already begun to towel dry Ahkmen’s hair as he spoke with the deft ease of someone who had had a LOT of practice at this.

“Maybe you and Sac, but me?” Larry braced himself before voicing his own upset caused this night, “Teddy, he thought when I found him and I was mad that he was covered in paint that I was going to bury him alive! That is not something you think of someone doing if you consider them a parent!”

“The Aztecs used to hold unruly children over burning chilies so the smoke would sting them.” Came Teddy’s unexpected response.

“I-what?”

“Parents of different era’s had far harsher punishments as a standard” Which didn’t help explain anything.

“Okay, well whilst I’m never looking at the chili the same way again that is SO not the point. He thought I was going to bury him! That is NOT okay by anyone’s standard! Aztec or otherwise!”

“So why is he now sat happily on your lap rubbing his face dry on the towel, why did he let you bathe him? Surely something that requires a lot of trust, even from little ones.”

“Because I promised him I’d never do anything like that.” Larry answered immediately, “Ever, that the worst punishment he’d get from me is a time out.”

“Well there you have it. He trusts you, he might not be as sure of you as myself and Sacagawea but you’re making progress my boy. This is a prime example.”

Larry sighed, finally convinced but very aware of the trouble brewing ahead, “You know Ahk is going to flip out over this right?” Pointed out a rather exasperated Larry.

“Of course.” Teddy was completely unruffled, continuing what he was doing whilst Ahkmen laughed at the feeling of having his scalp rubbed, “What young man wouldn’t? Quite mortifying to be reduced back to your childhood, however,” Teddy fixed Larry with a confident stare, “once he gets over his embarrassment and upset he’ll remember something else.”

“And that is?” Asked Larry, thoroughly unconvinced, as he rubbed the towelled shoulders and sides of the giggling little boy clearly enjoying the sensation of being tickled. 

“That he was, **_is_** , absolutely loved.” Answered Teddy simply, “And that must count for something.” The 26th president smiled, at both Larry and the child on his lap. 

Larry paused, looking down at his happy charge who was completely ignoring the grown up talk was instead currently trying to help the drying process by rubbing the towel in his ears, “You know? I guess you’re right, well, I hope you’re right but when he freaks out full-size you not leaving me to deal with it alone.”

Teddy’s eyes twinkled, “You have my word Lawrence.” He saluted for good measure, “I shall not abandon you.”

Larry can’t help the smile that spreads across his face at the display, “Right then, shall we get our guy dressed and ready for bed?”

“Absolutely.”

Five minutes later with minimal fuss and much tickling of feet Ahkmen was dressed in his beloved Spiderman pyjamas and latched onto Teddy’s chest, curling up in his strong, solid arms amidst the vehement exclaims of “I’m not tired!” and “Can I have a story please?” in between long and impressive yawns. Teddy smiled down at his temporarily adopted son, “how about I tell you a story on the way to bed, if you’re still awake I shall tell you another one. Agreed?”

“Yes please Papa Bear.”

“Very well, once, long ago in the kingdom of England lived a young man called Robin, he was a very good man, he was very kind and clever and was the best in the land with a bow and arrow. He lived as an outlaw, stealing from bad rich people to give it to the poor who didn’t have enough money to live no matter how hard they worked. This was because the king was a very bad king. He wasn’t even the real king but his brother, he was called Prince John and he was looking after England whilst good king Richard was fighting the crusades a long way from England. Robin led a group of other outlaws called the merry men and they helped him look after the poor and needy people in a place in England called Sherwood Forest. One day…”

Teddy continued to talk as both he and Larry walked back to Ahkmen’s room. It was a sign of how tired Ahkmen really was that he didn’t ask a single question about the story, just cuddled closer to Teddy and listened.

He fell asleep just as they were passing the alpaca ladies who cooed quietly at the sleeping little boy, he really was cute when he slept, somehow looking even more innocent than when he was awake.

Teddy laid him down gently in his bed, he’d acquired a good number more blankets in the three weeks he’d been at the museum, a few were from the alpaca ladies themselves, loving the excuse to make something for children they could actually see enjoying their creations. Ahkmen had watched them weave, utterly fascinated, when he visited the big crafting room. His scarf was actually beginning to show some progress, he was beginning to understand the method of knitting but kept forgetting the order the stiches were to be worked through. Martha and the others thankfully had endless patience with him. To add to his collection of clothes bought by Larry he now had a few hand-knitted sweaters and socks as well as the bright blankets that had been crocheted for him. His bed was now resembling a nest rather than an actual bed and Ahkmen loved it.

He snuggled down instantly when he was placed in the collection, Larry put Teti next to the sleeping child, she was the only one of the four who had managed to remain entirely dry throughout the evening which was something she was rather pleased about even Teddy had a few damp spots on his chest. The little bear tottered over to Ahkmen before crawling under his arm. The boy instinctively hugged her closer as she snuggled into him. It was one of the cuter things Larry had seen over the last few weeks, Ahkmen looked so peaceful, so secure in the world he found himself, it wasn’t all plain sailing but at least the little boy was utterly sure that he was loved here. ‘Maybe Teddy was right’. Thought Larry as he draped several blankets over the child, ‘Maybe that did count for something.’

“There, settled securely in dreamland. Excellent.”

“Yeah, thanks Teddy, thanks for all your help.”

“Not a problem, us fathers must stick together eh?” he smiled warmly at the night guard, truly revelling in the fact that he was allowed to be a father again, that he was needed for more than his exhibit wrangling skills and to try keep order and his friends safe from the ‘care’ of the previous night guards.

“Yeah, I, thanks.”

Teddy picked up on the hesitance and decided to speak his mind, hoping for once the younger man would actually listen, “You’re doing a good job Lawrence, we all are. Our Ahkmenrah is well cared for, he’s fed, clean and warm, not lacking in attention or playmates.”

“He’s still a long way from home.” Pointed out Larry, still feeling like they were failing him as they couldn’t return him to the home and parents he loved. 

“So we have created a home from home, we have done the best we can with what we have and that is commendable.”

This was true Larry knew, but it was also becoming a tired point, “Well what else could we have done?”

“The opposite of course.” Stated Teddy flatly, levelling a stern glare at Larry. 

“What?!” The abrupt shift in mood took Larry by surprise.

“We could have taken the opinion that it was his problem, the magic was his after all, his tablet, we could have not bothered with him at all, trusting the magic to right things. We could have instead simply controlled him, ordered him quiet, beaten if needs be, distracted him solely with your film reels. Not bothered to teach him English. Ignored him until the problem righted itself.”

With each word Larry grew more and more horrified, “But, but, we’d, I, we’d NEVER do that! Not ever!”

“Of course we wouldn’t!” exclaimed the president, “Don’t be absurd!”

“But you—”

“I merely meant that we COULD have taken that route, none of us would because we are all decent creatures but it could have been horrendous for such a little one given indifferent guardians or the previous night guards. So, Lawrence, I am merely inferring that we are doing a good job, Ahkmen is bright, responsive, affectionate and polite. He doesn’t fear us, he trusts us and wants to be good for us. He knows he’s not home but he’s safe, he’s loved here. I’m sure he still misses home dreadfully but of all the other alternatives it could be much worse. So do stop berating yourself my dear boy, you’re doing your best and it’s good enough, indeed, you regularly go above and beyond the call of duty so do please try to go easy on yourself this time.”

“I-thanks Teddy.”

The 26th president beamed, “No problem my boy, sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees, happens to the best of us.” He clapped Larry heartily on the back

“Still, I really appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome.” Teddy patted his shoulder affectionately, sensing Larry needed a little more affirmation.

Larry grinned, relaxing, “so you staying here for a while?”

“Yes, I do believe I shall, just to make sure he’s out for the count.”

“Good call, don’t want him to wake up before dawn.”

“No, no we do not.”

“You want me to send Sac over?”

“Only if she is not engaged otherwise, if she’s tending to our other son then leave her in peace.”

Larry broke into a huge smile at Teddy’s wording, the president noticed.

“Well,” he flushed slightly, “I realise he is rather claimed by most of us but I feel responsible for him, like you, I miss our Ahkmenrah, it’s been long time since I truly felt like a father, Jean-Baptiste is a joy and I love him with every ounce of wax I have and always will but I also miss the young man I had come to view as another son, I feel that if he is reliant on us now as he is then we, I, have a responsibility to give him as stable and loving a home as possible. I know I share this sentiment with Sacagawea as though she were his birth mother. All of us care for him and it shows. We are a family now Lawrence, all of us, and that is mainly down to you, encouraging cooperation and teamwork and sharing. It’s all rather magnificent.”

It was Larry’s turn to blush, “well, like you said we’re a team. Family.”

“Just as it should be.”

Larry left Teddy watching over the sleeping Ahkmen, ready to pick up his round and get back to cleaning up the wash room before dawn. It may have created a hell of a mess but it was worth it. Everyone was safe and well, and the storm on the horizon of a returning teenage Ahkmenrah? Well they could weather it, of that he was certain.

Fantastic fan art for this chapter done by the ever-lovely [Remy](http://chesterbennington.co.vu/)!

 If anyone else fancies doing some fan art for this series PLEASE DO! I will love you forever! Just drop me a link in the comments and I'll include it in the chapters! Thanks again Remy, this made me both flail with squee and nearly die of cute! :D

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there we have it! Ahkmen loves painting and bubble baths! I hope this was suitably fluffy and finally repaired the relationship between Ahkmen and Larry! The next chapter is going to take a darker turn again just to warn you all, I’ll get it up ASAP! 
> 
> Thanks again everyone, please let me know what you think!


	5. Unreasonable Force

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ahkmen asks Larry what his Maglite is, disbelieving him when the night guard explains that it's only a torch, puzzling over how it can be a torch when it clearly doesn't have any fire in it. This sends Larry into a tailspin, remembering the first time he'd had this conversation with Ahkmenrah but that time it was in a very different context...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my lovelies!  
> I hope you had a wonderful Christmas (if you celebrate it) and a very happy new year! I apologise once again for the horrible delay in uploads, all has been very busy with the holidays, I actually went on holiday too so I’ve not been able to write much and I’ve been getting back into the swing of working once again.  
> Thank you so much for all your kind comments and kudos, I read them all and I can't tell you how pleased an grateful I am that you're still enjoying my work! My updates are probably going to be monthly for the moment, obviously I’ll try to be more frequent but I also don’t want to disappoint you guys by giving out unachievable deadlines!  
> This chapter is quite a bit darker than my usual tone, it’s incorporating some themes I’ve had requests for whilst addressing something I’ve been meaning to share with everyone for a while, that right guys- finally here is the ‘taser incident’ chapter. Read with caution! 
> 
> Please let me know what you think!

**Unreasonable Force**

“Lah-re!” piped a now-familiar little voice

Larry repressed a sigh, “That not how you say my name Ahkmen.” He _knew_ Ahkmen could say his name, he just used that phrasing when he really wanted something. Nicky was very similar with his varying pronunciations of Dad…

“Your name sounds funny!” countered Ahkmen, looking about as indignant as a five year old could.

“Well so does yours!” pointed out Larry.

“No it doesn’t!” the child pouted, puffed up with injured pride, “It means ‘Spirit of the Moon’”

Huh. Well that explained a lot. “Well that’s great,” began Larry aloud, “but it still sounds funny to me because I’m not from Egypt but I still try to say yours right don’t I?”

The child huffed seeing the logic and not liking it.

“I know you can do it,” Needled Larry, “you’re too clever not to.”

Ahkmen took the bait, hook line and sinker, “Lah-ree”

“Nearly”

“Larree.” It was close enough.

“Bingo! Now what is it Ahkmen?” The urge to simply call him ‘pint-sized’, ‘short-stuff’ or simply ‘trouble’ had been growing steadily these last few weeks.

“What’s that?” The little boy pointed eagerly to the Maglite on Larry’s hip.

“Oh, it’s a Maglite, a torch.”

“Don’t be silly! There’s no fire in that.” The words hit Larry like a brick. Grown-up Ahk had said the same thing. But the context had been completely different. Larry felt his chest seize.

“It’s, um, special,” he croaked out, “it’s got light in it but doesn’t burn.”

Ahkmen fizzed with excitement, bombarding Larry with sudden eager questions “Is it magic?! Is it a magic wand?! Has it been blessed a priest? Is it powered by the Gods?!”

“Well not really-”

“Can I see?!” Ahkmen’s eyes seemed to have grown impossibly round in his curiosity, easily taking up half of his face. Wow, definitely different from last time. He could practically see grown-up Ahk. Hear their exchange. Larry needed a minute. That had been, that had—

He felt his breath catch in his throat as the lead-heavy sick feeling pitted his belly.No. Apparently he still wasn’t quite over that. Now was not the time. Not in front of Ahkmen.

“Hey, tell you what,” reasoned Larry with forced brightness, “why don’t you take this and show Sac-Moon Mother, “ he corrected quickly, “what it can do, I need to go and do something in the office.” He could see Ahkmen begin to offer his help, “It’s a very important job to carry the Maglite. Can I trust you?”

The little boy stopped and nodded solemnly, his princely training kicking in once again, “On my honour.” The resemblance to grown up Ahk nearly choked him. “Good. That’s good. Now carry it carefully. Don’t drop it.”

“I promise!” Piped the tiny child happily. Ahkmen took the torch with reverence and trotted off to find Sac, determined to only use it when she was around. It WAS magic after all. Anything grown-ups say wasn’t magic usually was. They just liked to cover it up.

Larry meanwhile, as soon as Ahkmen was out of sight bolted for the office, closing the door to give himself a minute.

The first time he’d had to explain the torch had very nearly broken him.

He braced himself against the door as the memory flooded back.

After the first day or two after they’d saved the tablet from Cecil, Reginald and Gus and they had been shown the door for the LAST time things had begun to get back to normal, well as normal as it got in the museum, with the added bonus that the exhibits had seemingly taken his words to heart. They were getting on better now and he wasn’t constantly worried about getting ripped apart by Attila. He wasn’t worried about any of the exhibits anymore. Except one.

Ahkmenrah had taken very well to being let out, he was open, gently spoken and willing to help with anything asked of him, seemingly becoming friendly with the exhibits very quickly. It was easy to see why, with them, he was full of smiles and laughter. But since Nicky hadn’t been around the past few days (it was a school week after all) he noticed Ahk avoided being on his own with Larry and more than a few times, he caught a few guarded looks being sent his way. Like Ahk was sizing him up as an opponent. Initially he thought it was an adjustment thing. Whenever he asked, Ahk was quick to say he was fine. Too quick.

On the third evening of being avoided he decided to see if he could get to bottom of things. In retrospect it was one of the dumber things he’s done in his life but at least it had begun to resolve things.

“Hey Teddy, Sac, you guys seen Ahkmenrah recently?” Larry approached the new couple as they were strolling towards the sealife exhibit.

“He said he was heading to explore the east wing tonight,” offered Sacagawea with a smile, “maybe the water-cycle room?”

“Awesome, thanks guys!”

Larry had headed off, pleased he’d have a chance to chat to Pharaoh without the usual chaos surrounding them.

Two things he noticed when reaching the room of the water cycle display. One, it was very, very quiet and two, it was dark. Not completely pitch black but dim enough to warrant the use of his trusty Maglite. He’d have to report that to McPhee and get someone in to the fix the lights, with the old fixtures the bulbs blew fairly regularly apparently. He clicked on his torch.

“Hey, Ahk?” called Larry into the gloom, “Are you in here?”

Silence. Huh, that was odd, there wasn’t really anything else down this corridor and Sac had said he’d come this way. If there was anyone’s sense of direction he trusted, it was Sacagawea’s. “Ahk? Pharaoh Ahkmenrah are you in here?”

Nothing. Then he thought he caught the vaguest hint of fabric ruffling. Cloak fabric. Why would Ahk be in here on his own in the dark? Panic shot through Larry, maybe he was hurt! Fallen in the dark? Unconscious?

“Ahk are you okay?!” He barrelled through the doors as he called out in worry, sweeping for any sign of the pharaoh. The beam caught Ahk square in the face.

Larry barely had chance to formulate the thought, ‘thank god you’re alright!’ before Ahk shrieked like a scalded cat and leapt out of the torch’s light.

“I knew it!” yelled the pharaoh, his voice an odd mix of outrage and fear, “You are just like the others! Why can’t I ever be left in peace?!”

Larry was aghast, he’d never heard Ahk raise his voice like this, “What? What the hell man?! Are you okay?” He swung on the source of the voice, shining the torch on Ahk again. The pharaoh flinched in the glare and dove out of its path with a cry.

“You won’t get me like that again!” Yelled Ahk sounded more than just pissed off now, “I’m no longer confined to my tomb, you’ll have to be a lot faster if you want silence me again!”

“Silence you?” Larry’s mind was spinning, what had got into the pharaoh?!, “What? I just came to see if you were okay! What’s going on?!”

“Going on?”

Larry, being spectacularly dense in this situation, swung the light beam on Ahk again, thoroughly confused.

“GET THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!” Ahk screamed.

Larry startled, nearly dropping the torch, “Jesus! Okay! I’m turning it off. Is that what the matter is?” Ahk had looked like a cornered cat, completely terrified but willing to rip Larry’s face off even if it killed him.

“I won’t be silent!” Ahk’s back was pressed against the wall, he knew he sounded braver than he felt, “You can try all your tricks but I won’t be silenced by you or any of your kind! Never again!” Larry had come to show him his place in the museum. He was going to lock him back up but not before torturing him it seemed. He knew it would come to this. Well if that was the case he was going to go down fighting.

“What are you talking about?!” Demanded Larry, utterly lost and beginning to panic to slightly, what had set Ahkmenrah off? He looked like he was going to kill him! “Why would I want you quiet?!” Pressed the night guard, trying desperately to connect the dots and getting a big tangled scramble.

“Because that’s what all night guards want! They want me locked up and silent so I don’t get in the way and cause trouble!” Ahk couldn’t help the slight hysterical note to his voice. The thought of being struck again, being locked up again. It was too much to bear. Too long had he suffered. He dropped into fighting stance. He could run or fight or submit. Running might work, he wasn’t a fool, he could learn the new ways of the world. He spoke English like the others here, he _could_ find a way. But the Night Guard would never let him run without a fight. And he would NEVER submit.

Ahkmenrah, fourth king of a fourth king realised with utter and sudden clarity he was going to have to kill for his freedom. If he moved fast enough he could surprise the Night Guard, break his neck in a move Imhotep his old instructor had taught him. He felt a stab of pity for the child of the guard who had seemed kind but there was no telling what was truth or fallacy here. He could not trust them. It was fight or suffer once more and Ahkmenrah had had his fill of pain and misery for ten lifetimes over.

The distress in his voice was rising, Larry honestly wasn’t sure if Ahk was going to cry, have a panic attack or punch him. Possibly all three.

Time to proceed delicately thought Larry belatedly. “Okay,” He began in his most reasonable voice, hoping to God he didn’t sound as scared as he felt, “Ahk please listen to me for a moment and answer me one question. Please?”

“I am listening.” He’d moved in the gloom, Larry’s hackles rose as he just about made out the figure of the young pharaoh. Okay, he clearly had about three seconds before a freaked-out Ahk tried some Egyptian ninja moves on him. Larry had no idea what was going on but this was not what he was expecting. He tried to stay calm against his own rising panic. ‘Be a Jedi Daley,’ he ordered himself, ‘be a Jedi, at one with the force, be a leaf on the wind, just calm down before you spook him more.’

“I’m not going to hurt you Ahk,” Larry tried to reassure aloud, “not here, not ever and I never want you silent. I don’t want anyone here silent. Can you please tell me why the light is such a problem?”

“You know that night guard.” Ahk spat, edging closer. Was he really going to try and bring him down? Was he actually going to attempt to take down one of his tormentors? Murder him? After all these years? After all the restraint he’d shown in Cambridge? Had Larry been one of them here? Helping with his torment? He wasn’t sure but it was better safe than sorry. He realised now that he was too scared to even consider risking the chance of being forced back, of being imprisoned once more. No. This was his only chance. Ahk moved closer, getting ready to pounce, rage and terror fuelling his steps. His arms were sure, his grip strong. He could do this.

He had to.

“No, I really, really don’t. Is it you don’t want me to look at you or something else?” Larry asked, trying to figure out what the problem was, Ahk wasn’t making any sense.

“You’re lying to me.” Snapped Ahk viciously. He was so close, just a few more paces and the guard would be no more.

Larry was beginning to really panic, the vibes he was getting off Ahk were nothing short of lethal. He realised the truth with a jolt. He was going to die on the job. Oh God, he was barely a week into the job and he was going to die at the hands of a mummy! He was going to be killed by a horror movie! “No! I promise!” He gasped desperately, “I just want to know what’s going on! I want to help! What does—”

“It’s brings PAIN!” Ahk roared, tears forming at the remembered suffering, trapped, suffocating and being hurt again and again and again. “It’s a torture device! They used it on me for years! “If I got too loud with my pleas to be released they would strike me with lightening! They would wield the power of the Gods and I would see a flash of light then all would be blinding and burning!” He choked back a sob, trying not to let it break free, “I won’t let you strike me again!” Ahk gathered himself, determined not to lose his focus.

Dear Mother of God. They’d tased him. That was the only explanation, Sweet Jesus.

‘Muffle the Mummy’ the words on the instructions floated back to him. Larry felt sick, felt his knees give way and he crashed to the floor. “Oh God, Ahk,” Larry almost wept as everything fell into place, “I’m so, so sorry, those bastards, they, oh God, they did that to you?”

As reactions went Ahk was not expecting that but he was too far gone to care at that moment, “Yes, of course!” he hissed, “And you will too! I know it! You all turn on me eventually!”

“No!” Larry began from where he’d crumpled to the floor in horror, mind reeling, stomach lurching at the idea. “I swear to God I would never, NEVER do that. Please Ahk, please believe me. I’d NEVER do that. My Maglite isn’t a taser, I swear. Can I,” he swallowed hard fighting the rising nausea, “look, can I turn it on? I won’t point it at you I swear I just need to be able to see you right now.”

“No!” Ahk was not about to let him use that device again! He should just kill him now whilst he had the upper hand. But. But Larry had collapsed. In fear of what he realised was to happen? Of course! He was just trying to buy time! But. Ahk considered the horror on the other man’s face, it was dark in the room but not enough to mask expressions completely, he could see the upset on the others man’s face, hear it in his voice, feel his actions. Upset that had not been there until the pharaoh’s enraged explanation. Maybe, maybe there was something else there instead of cornered prey knowing their time was up, that Osiris was beckoning them to be judged on their heavy heart. Maybe.

Larry saw a flicker of uncertainty flash over Ahk’s. It was the best he was going to get. “Look,” He offered, trying to sound as calm as he could, failing miserably “honestly, It’s just a torch!”

“Ha!” Sneered Ahk, “Now I know you’re lying.”

“What?!” No, no, no! Ahk HAD to believe him!

“How can it possibly be a torch?” Demanded Ahk, readying to strike, “It has no flame!”

“No!” Cried Larry terrified, this was his last shot and he knew it before Ahk did what he looked so keen to do. Which probably had something to do with rearranging all his internal organs in alphabetical order, “I mean, it’s just a light source, nothing else, nothing,” he swallowed, “painful. Look.”

He could just make out Ahk freezing at his words, clearly frightened by the device but torn between listening and attacking, “I am not falling for that!”

“Fine, look, just take it.” Offered Larry, hoping to whichever God was listening that Ahk was not completely beyond reason. 

“This is some sort of trick...”

“No Ahk, I promise this is just a harmless Maglite.” He offered it again.

Ahk considered, it hadn’t hurt him when it first shone on him but it could be a delayed reaction. But the night guard seemed genuinely upset at the idea he’s been hurt. Had collapsed even. Ahk wasn’t sure what to do but he knew in his heart he needed an answer. To trust or not to trust? And the man on the floor before him looked so earnest. There was something, just something that didn’t seen the same as the others, no tone of irrefutable authority, of demand. This night guard had seemed kind to the others in the past few days. He had even been kind to him. And he liked the man’s son, the child, bright eyed and full of questions. He had hoped they could be friends on those first nights.

Ahk took a deep, calming breath.

May Ra help him.

He _wanted_ to believe him.

“I am trusting you on your honour.” He stated flatly, trying to keep the wobble from his voice and betray his fear.

“Absolutely.” Breathed Larry.

Larry could actually feel the pharaoh gather his courage. Ahkmenrah, with a trembling hand, took the device.

Larry tried to hide the tremor in his voice, “Just press the button, I swear nothing bad will happen.”

Turning to point the torch away from both of them Ahk gritted his teeth and, praying to every god he knew, pressed down. The light beamed proudly. Ahk yelped in surprise, nearly dropping it.

“See?” Larry prompted, hardly daring to breathe.

The Pharaoh very gingerly waved a hand back and forth across the beam. Nothing happened. “It seems you are correct.” He agreed stiffly, mind whirring in overdrive.

“Yeah. And I promise as long as I am alive I will NEVER do something like that to you. I would NEVER tase you.” Ahk could hear the sincerity in the night guard’s voice, over the fear and panic his words, as he spoke them were from his heart. Larry truly meant him no harm. Never had.

The whole episode seemed so trivial now, he felt ashamed at being so fearful over simple light. That was not how Pharaoh’s were supposed to behave! “Forgive me,” Ahkmenrah began in his most formal voice, determined to keep his dignity (what was left of it at least) intact, “but I needed assurance.”

“Actually Ahk,” smiled Larry in relief, hoping Ahk couldn’t hear the pounding of his heart, “you are more than entitled to that. Are you okay?”

Ahkmenrah looked abashed, “You must think me very foolish.”

“God No.” The night guard replied immediately, elaborating on his point, “Not at all, in fact, I think you’re pretty brave for trusting me.”

“I just had to know. After so long—” Ahk’s voice wavered.

Larry no longer saw a desperate, potentially violent figure before him, but a frightened young man. Long borne instincts from raising Nicky kicked in, “C’mere buddy.” Ahk allowed himself to be gently drawn down next to Larry, the night guard wrapping an arm about the young pharaoh. Ahk froze for a moment, surprised by the offer of comfort after everything that had just happened, before giving into his need for consolation and settled into the contact. “You know,” spoke Larry gently, still trying to calm down but aware that Ahk was the younger of the two (relatively speaking at least) and probably needed a bit of real reassurance right now. He marvelled at how quick he was to forgive the pharaoh, indeed, he already had done. “The fact that you never stopped, never stopped trying to free yourself, calling for help, that’s some courage dude.”

“I am a Pharaoh of the Kingdom of Egypt. Sired by Gods. I can withstand all that which is tested of me.” Came the stiff reply.

“And I respect that.” Explained Larry patiently, determined not to let Ahk hide behind what he was beginning to suspect was his default ‘impervious pharaoh’ mask, “But you don’t have to withstand anything anymore. Not on your own at least.”

Ahk let out a long sigh, “Thank you.” The voice was smaller now, younger. He seemed to take some comfort in the words. They sat still for a long while then Ahk spoke again, barely more than a whisper, “I hate that box,” He wiped angrily at a few escaping tears, “hate what they did, hate the way it can make me feel. Sometimes it almost makes me forget myself and I would do anything to avoid returning to it.  I will endure, I know. I can endure but, but I wish, I wish I did not have to.” 

Larry squeezed his shoulder comfortingly, “Not on my watch, I promise you are free to come and go as much as all the other exhibits and if you need to holler or scream or just beat the crap out of something we can work with that okay? Just tell me what you need. It’s my job to look after you.”

In the dimness Ahk shifted a little to stare at Larry, taking in the serious gaze and the set of his shoulders. He believed him, despite every fibre of his being screaming at him to run, to escape the trick, to take the tablet and just keep running.

“Thank you, guardian of Brooklyn. Thank you.” Ahk wrapped his arms around Larry properly, hugging in close. Larry gripped him all the tighter.

“No problem pal.”

It didn’t take Larry long to realise that Ahk was shaking. “Ahk? Buddy? You okay?”

“I…”

Larry rubbed the young man’s back comfortingly, full ‘Dad Mode’ engaged.

“I’m sorry.” Ahk managed, voice small and still clearly afraid.

“Why? You were scared, you thought the worst, hell, I’d be the same if I were in your shoes.”

“No,” Ahk began trying to vocalise his meaning, “not for that, well, yes for that but also, I, I—”

“What is it Ahk?” Asked Larry gently, determined to get everything out in the open and aired. He couldn’t stand the idea that Ahk had been afraid of him, that honestly cut deeper than the idea that Ahk had been clearly intending to hurt him.

The young pharaoh gripped him harder for a moment before raising his head to face him, if he was going to confess then he’d better do it looking at the man rather than hiding like a frightened child, he had some sense of decorum after all. He didn’t want to tell him, he was risking their newly-borne fragile accord but he owed it to the night guard, to the man’s courage. He was terrified he was going to break their peace before it had even begun, that he was risking his freedom but he _had_ to tell him, “I, I was going to kill you. Before you explained the torch, I, I thought you were like them, I thought you were going to try and subdue me when you came here and, and I couldn’t face it all again after being free I couldn’t!”

Ahk was shaking harder now, clearly trying hard not to cry, he suddenly looked so much younger, Larry realised he didn’t know how old Ahk actually was. Before he’d of guessed around 25 but right now? He’d barely pass as a highschool sophomore.

“Okay,” Larry found himself saying in a calmer voice than he thought he possessed, hoping to God that Ahk couldn’t feel the trembling through his own limbs, he was the grown-up here, he had to be the voice of calm reason. Even if it felt like he was about to have a heart attack at that confession. Jesus Christ. Ahk had been intending to kill him, not hurt but actually _kill_. For once his brain hadn’t leapt to the wrong conclusions. Larry swallowed hard. ‘Not the time for this Daley, deal with Ahk first,’ He tried to sound as reasonable as he could when asking the burning question, “Well, do you still feel like killing me?”

Ahk’s eyes widened in horror, whole body jerking in response, “NO! No of course not! You, you didn’t trick me, when I told you of the others the look on your face was real, you wanted no part in their cruelty!”

“You’re damn right I don’t!” Larry snorted.

“I don’t want to kill you, not now, I swear on Ra himself. I’m sorry, I thought, I thought it was my only escape, please, you have to believe me!” Ahk began to panic, it was all too much to process, he’d only been freed a few days ago, watching his step, trying to find allies and trying to work out if he was really free. Never had he wanted to go home more. He was a grown man, a king, a pharaoh, but right now? He just wanted his parents. Wanted to be told everything would be alright and that it had all just been a bad dream, that they’d never been taken from him, from Egypt. He just wanted to go home.

“Hey, hey, hey, it’s okay,” Larry began to rub soothing circles into Ahk’s back, surprised the pharaoh let him, gently he pulled Ahk down again to lean against him, “I’m not mad, it’s okay, I understand, you were scared, terrified even. I promise I am not those guys. I swear it Ahk, I am not going to and will not ever try to hurt you okay?”

“Okay?” Replied Ahk unsure of this new word.

“Yeah, but I need you to promise me something.”

“What Guardian?”

“That next time you’re that scared you tell me? You don’t try and murder anyone?”

“I promise.” Ahk swore immediately, “on my honour as Pharaoh of the Lands of Egypt.”

“Cool, well that’s that then.”

“That’s it?” Ahkmenrah could hardly believe his ears, surely there would be more, condemnation at least if not due punishment.

“Yeah, I trust you dude.”

Ahk’s mouth fell open, “Why?”

“Because someone looking upset as you do right now isn’t lying. I get it okay?” Larry swallowed hard before continuing, “That, that was your last resort wasn’t it?”

“I— yes, yes it was.”

“Well then, now you know that I’m not a threat and you can talk to me then I don’t suppose you’ll be doing much ninja murder. Am I right?”

“Yes Guardian,” Ahk paused, considering, before asking, “what’s ninja-murder?”

“Well the way you were moving reminded me of another type of fighting, comes from Japan. I’ll get a book for you on it.”

Ahk considered, he liked books and liked combat training, he was surprised Larry would provide him with something that would extend his skills. He must have truly meant his words. Larry DID trust him. It had been so long since anyone had placed trust in him, not since Eugene back in Cambridge. Ahkmenrah decided then and there he would do everything in his power to earn that trust wholeheartedly. “Thank you,” he managed against the tide of emotion, “that, that would be most kind.”

“You’re welcome. Now you ready to get out this room?”

“I, I think so. I rather dislike the dark.” Admitted the pharaoh. He’d only been in there to try and gather his thoughts away from the hustle and bustle of the main museum. It was a dark irony he thought, that whilst he hated the dark after all these years of being the only world he knew it still offered some form of twisted solace.

“Me too buddy. But here,” Larry hugged the young man again for good measure, “no hard feelings okay? I’m not going to hold this against you. I swear. You had good reason and you’ve apologised. You didn’t actually hurt me and I know you won’t now, I know you won’t hurt anyone at all here so we’re cool okay? Don’t go beating yourself up about this or think I’m going to change my mind because I’m not. You’ve got every right to be here Ahk, okay? Every right. So just take it easy okay?”

Oh. Ahkmenrah hadn’t realised how much he had needed to hear that, to have that confirmation spoken aloud. He felt a great weight lift from his soul, “I, thank you, I was right to place the title on you as I did, you truly are a Guardian of the highest order.”

“Thanks man,” Larry grinned, clapping Ahk on the shoulder for good measure, noticing how much Ahk seemed to appreciate physical reassurance, “that means a lot. Now shall we get out of here?”

“Gladly.” Ahk managed a shaky smile, still fairly shocked by the turn of events, this night guard, Larry, had not only NOT threatened him or tried to torture him but he also comforted him in his moment of weakness, much like a father rather than ridicule him like the others. Ahk realised with another pang how much he missed his own parents. He shook off that particular thought, he hadn’t seen them for 68 years, he clearly wasn’t about to see them any time soon. He had to focus on the here and now.

“Awesome, come on.”

The made their way onto the main corridor and were almost immediately accosted by Jed and Octavius.

“Gigantor! King Tut! How you guys doin’?” Hollered Jed from behind the wheel of their current blue ride. Larry was amused to see that Octavius had clearly settled into the role of a passenger, his helmet long since discarded on the back seat.

“Hey guys, we’re good thanks, car working okay?”

“Running sweet as stream in springtime.” Jed looked up, looking the two men before him up and down with a leader’s concerned eye, “You guys alright? You’re both looking a mite pale there.”

Octavius too had picked up on the sense of unsettlement that hung over the two bigatures, his roman general sense fully tingling, “Jedediah is right my liege, you both look a little wrung out if I may say so.”

“It’s been a long night.” Larry offered in poor explanation.

That did not wash with either of them, “It’s only 10 O’clock! What you—”

“Okay, well it’s been a long day too,” too long thought Larry, everything was catching up to him and right now he really just needed a break from everything. There was just too much to handle but he was not about to fall apart in front of Ahkmenrah, poor guy would only blame himself and fear some kind of crappy consequence and basically undo the last traumatic half an hour of working stuff out. Urgh. “say,” He turned to the miniatures with barely concealed desperation, “look I got some Gigantor-guard stuff to do, how about you show Ahk how the car works?” He turned to the pharaoh, “you like machinery don’t you?”

“Well, I—”

“Of course you do, your people built the pyramids.”

“And mighty edifices they are too.” Added Octavius helpfully.

“Well yes but—” Ahk had no idea what was going on.

“Great! You’re gonna love the internal combustion engine.”

“Internal what?!”

“Jed, go explain the wonders of the automobile, I’m sure you guys are gonna love it.”

Jed could see a request for an escape when he saw one and he was not about to leave Larry high and dry. Something had happened between him and Ahk, didn’t look bad, neither looked mad at each other which was a blessing but they both looked all kinds of shook-up. Huh. He’d never pegged Ahk for a guy that could shake. He decided not to worry for now, so long as there were not ancient curses about to fly and screw everything up he was okay doing distraction duty. “Er, okay Gigantor, come on Ahk, follow me, I got something real swell to show you.”

“What’s flooded here?!” Asked Ahk looking alarmed.

“No, I mean, real good okay? C’mon, there’s a ton o’ books an’ stuff down this way.”

Ahk was not an idiot, he was well aware he was being dismissed without Larry wanting to make it obvious. Ahk knew when he was not wanted and frankly was just grateful the situation hadn’t escalated irrevocably. He sent one worried glance to the older man, who nodded encouragingly. Ahk found to his surprise he trusted Larry in return, despite everything he believed Larry wasn’t about to spring some sort of trap and torture him into submission, that he didn’t want to hurt him which was already a hundred times better then what he’d had for the last 54 years, if not the full 68. He knew there was still a risk he could be locked back up but, well, if he did not incur anyone’s wrath, was helpful as he could be then he would surely be left alone.

He hoped.

Ahk dutifully made his way down the corridor with the miniatures, chatting amiably whilst Larry watched.

As soon as the trio was out of sight Larry sagged against the wall, not noticing a familiar couple making their way towards him in the now quiet corridor.

“Oh god I need a drink!”

“Lawrence! How are you doing lad?”

“Ugh, I’m fine Teddy, I just—”

“Well you don’t look it, what’s happened? Is it our Pharaoh? You went to find him a while ago and—”

“Yes, yeah, I’m fine, Ahk’s fine, well as fine as someone with 54 years of PTSD can be.”

Teddy frowned in consternation, “I haven’t the foggiest idea what you are talking about Lawrence.”

“Ahk’s, Ahk’s gonna take a while to get used to his freedom, and get used to me being a Night Guard that’s NOT gonna hurt him and so, right now, I need a drink so excuse—”

Teddy caught his arm, all jovialness forgotten.

“What do you mean?” Teddy had gone pale to the point that Sac looked worried.

“Wha—?” Was all Larry could articulate given the unexpected reaction.

“What is it my bear?”

Teddy was uncharacteristically silent, focusing all his attention on Larry as if his next words were from God himself. “The old guys,” began the shaken Brooklyn native, “the night guards, they, they, tortured Ahk, tased him to try and keep him quiet.”

Sac’s hand flew to her mouth in horror, she might not know precisely what ‘tasing’ entailed but anything prefixed with the word ‘torture’ was not going to be good.

“Good lord.” Teddy honestly looked like he might faint, “Lawrence may I join you in that drink?” he asked in a quiet voice.

“S-sure Teddy, sure thing.” Fully aware there was something that was not being said.

“The previous guards kept a good vintage in the office, I rather think it’s time to reconnoitre don’t you?” prompted the president with forced lightness.

“Whatever you say Teddy.” Larry, mind reeling, shared a meaningful look with the Shoshone woman. “Sac, let’s go.”

They made it into the office in record time, Sac quietly shutting the door behind them sensing this was a discussion that was best not to be overheard.

“Now if I remember correctly,” Began Teddy as he strode purposely towards the over-stuff bookshelf in the office, “Aha! Here it is! Glenlivet, twelve years old too, just the ticket! One moment whilst I locate the glasses.” After another moment of rootling around Teddy produced three glasses, both Larry and Sac noted there only seemed to be three but given the colour Teddy had gone earlier and the forced cheeriness he was exuding now this was the last of their worries. Larry had a sinking feeling about the whole thing anyway.

Teddy poured the three of them each a generous serving before raising his glass, “Chin chin!”

“Mazeltov” replied Larry fighting the urge to down it in one go.

Sac remained quiet, bowing her head in thanks whilst not taking her eyes off her bear. She could see how tightly Teddy was holding onto his glass.

“So,” began Teddy awkwardly, “our pharaoh?”

Larry took a hearty gulp to fortify himself, he might have only known Teddy for five nights and Sacagawea for three but he already felt like they were his colleagues, friends even, he could trust them completely.

“Well, um, Ahk, he, he…” Larry was struggling to put what he’d just dealt with into words. Sac laid a gentle hand on his shoulder, he nodded in appreciation.

“Take your time Larry, there is nothing you cannot say to Teddy and I.”

“Thanks Sac, I just, it’s really hard, I’m only the night guard, I wasn’t trained, I’m not trained, I can’t—”

“Lawrence, my dear boy, we are rather in this all together. We cannot help you if you don’t share with us.”

“I’m trying! It’s just, it was a lot to take in! Ahk’s been locked up for a long time.”

“54 years.”

“Yeah, 54 years! YEARS! The fact he isn’t crazy is a miracle after being shut inside a box for so long but on top of that, the other guys, the other night guards? They were total jerks to him, okay, no, no that’s nowhere near appropriate, they were sadistic bastards to him! They hurt him guys! Like really, they threatened him, wanted to keep him quiet and they made him shut up alright! They tased him! Or used a cattle prod! Whatever, something that used an electric shock that was strong enough, painful enough to knock him out.” Larry was brimming with horrified fury, that sick feeling returning full force, he ran his hands wildly through his already mussed hair, “The instructions they gave me? You know what they said? Number five on the list was ‘muffle the mummy’ MUFFLE THE MUMMY!” Larry raged, “He looks barely old enough to be a senior in high school and they tortured him! For years! I can’t even, I can’t— what do I do? How do I deal with that?! How do I even begin to help him?!”

Teddy had gone white as a sheet.

“They, they tortured him?” he asked very quietly.

“YES! Haven’t you been listening?!” Larry thundered, completely missing the look of utterly horrified disbelief on Teddy’s face, “They shocked him, zapped him with enough electricity that he thought they’d channelled lightning down on him, that they’d managed to get the power of the Gods on their side to hurt him. He thought I was going to do the same! He thought my Maglite was a taser or a cattle prod or whatever.” Larry paused, bracing himself for the worst part of it for himself, “Ahk thought **_I_** was going to hurt him, **_me_** ,” Larry swallowed hard, trying not to break down completely, it sounded even worse out loud, “He thought I was going to shock him and lock him up. He almost killed me because he thought that was his only escape and goddamn it I’m actually on his side with this. I can’t, this is too much, I can’t believe they—”

“THOSE MONSTERS!” Exploded Teddy with all the force of a cannon volley, “THEY PROMISED! THEY PROMISED ME! THEY—”

That pulled Larry up short, “What?!”

Teddy’s mouth fell open, shocked at his own words,“I apologise, I shouldn’t, I—”

“Teddy, c’mon man,” Larry tried to coax, he might actually have half a chance of understanding this whole sorry mess if the president voiced what was so clearly trying to escape. “what’s going on?”

“I well, I’d rather—”

“Teddy? My bear? What happened?” As Teddy looked into Sac’s dark eyes he found all his resolve melting away, he was utterly in her power and whilst he’d rather not share his shame, he knew deep down it was better to have no secrets between them. Even if she would definitely think the less of him.

“I, I, tried to free Ahkmenrah, in the first few weeks of our awakening.”

“You did? Why didn’t—”

“The night guards spread vicious rumours about our Pharaoh to the point that almost everyone feared him, believed that he was cursed, was violent and tyrannical and that he would subjugate all in the museum if we let him out.”

“Almost everyone?”

“I, I, couldn’t believe he was monstrous, I mean, of course he screamed for release! He was locked in an oubliette for heaven’s sake!”

“Oubliette?” Larry frowned at the unfamiliar word.

“A tiny prison cell or cage, where the prisoner is locked in and forgotten about. I read his plaque you see, he was a boy, died aged eighteen—”

THAT was something Larry hadn’t expected, sure he thought Ahk was young and all but really?! THAT young?! The sick feeling in Larry’s belly returned full force. “Dude what?!” the night guard cried in horror, “He’s eighteen?!”

Teddy sighed in resignation, “Lawrence you really need to learn to open your eyes more.”

“Yeah,” Larry ran his hands through his hair again, reeling once again from the force of information he was receiving and all its implications, “yeah, I’m getting that. Sorry, what were you saying?”

“That he was hardly more than a boy, my sons were older than him for heaven’s sake! And then one night he wasn’t screaming.” Teddy had to gather himself, “he was crying, sobbing for help, crying for release, for his mother, for his father, and, and I had to do something.”

“You tried to set him free?” Asked Sac very gently.

“Well at first I tried to argue reason with the night guards. Pointing out that no person who could cry like Ahkmenrah could possibly be evil, that he was obviously just a frightened boy who desperately wanted his parents. They scoffed and likened him to a siren. Told me that if I let him out I would unleash him and his ungodly curse and that they would make sure Sacagawea would be the one to bear the brunt of it.” Teddy turned to face his love, “I’m sorry my dear, I was so afraid for you I hesitated.”

“Wait,” Larry’s eyebrows shot up in realisation, “hesitated? You mean, you didn’t give up?”

Teddy looked deeply uncomfortable, “Well, no, now that you mention it, I didn’t give up, not then. Forgive me, I wasn’t strong enough to see through my endeavour.”

“My bear, you are the bravest man I know, the stories I hear from those who were more free than I, you were brave to even challenge them.”

“Guys, what—?” Larry was trying desperately to keep up.

“I am coming to that Lawrence,” Teddy took off his glasses and cleaned them, a sure sign he was struggling with what he was about to say. “I, I tried to free him one evening, about a week after my first attempt. Ahkmenrah had been screaming fit to burst the previous night you see, this night he was quiet and the guards were nowhere to be seen, I thought, maybe he was sleeping, exhausted from all that panic, now I understand he was quiet for more sinister reasons. But, I couldn’t stand it, he was just so young, I refused to believe he was dangerous. I, I tried to free him, I even lifted the lid to see a motionless, bandaged-bound mummy before they caught me, slamming the lid down on my hands, hard enough to dent the wax.” Teddy braced himself to speak his next part, “They were not best pleased.” Which was obviously Teddy-speak for ‘furiously about to unleash the wrath of God.’ Larry gripped his whiskey glass for moral support. “They bound me, attempted to beat me until they realised after an hour or so all it was achieving was mussing up my uniform and they couldn’t have that, not their ‘prime exhibit’” he snorted derisively, but they were determined to punish me for my insubordination. So they focused on someone else.”

Larry’s eyes widened, shooting to where Sac sat, horrified.

“Good lord, no, it wasn’t Sacagawea they turned their attention on, for once I am glad of that damned glass it protected her from their vengeance as they never had the keys to her exhibit. No, no it was rather another ally, a dear friend actually, James, he’d been with me back in the rangers, a solid comrade in arms, we used to have a small exhibit as part of the focus on my life in the early days of the museum and he was there. We’d had a joyful reunion in all the chaos of the first few weeks of awakening.”

Teddy’s eyes began to fill, Sac took his hand whilst Larry topped up his glass.

“They, they rather took out their frustrations on him you see, he was expendable they said, whereas I was not. Expendable.” Teddy spat, “he was worth more than they could ever understand! A loyal friend, kind and capable and they melted him.”

Larry’s brain officially short circuited.

“They what? How?”

“Right in front of me.” Teddy took off his hat, trying to give his hands something to do. “I couldn’t do anything, they made me watch, they took my eyelids so I couldn’t look away as they reduced him to nothing but a puddle of wax in front of me. Never to be reanimated.” The 26th president drew a deep, steadying breath, “At least he couldn’t feel pain but he still died all the same, because of me. They knew we were friends you see.” Teddy forced the next words out, voice shaky with enraged horror, “And they promised, swore that if I went near Ahkmenrah again they would repeat the process with someone else. After witnessing that horror I couldn’t risk anyone else. They’d already forced three of what they called ‘minor exhibits’ out into the sun to establish their tyrannical rule. I agreed to their terms, they wouldn’t harm another exhibit so long as I towed the line, kept order. And God help me I did, I couldn’t risk the harm, Ahkmenrah was one poor soul against so many other innocents, I couldn’t risk the harm, the murder. After a while I started to tell myself it was for the best, that I didn’t know if he was truly good or not. I let their lies seep in, it was easier to believe I was keeping the museum safe rather than assisting in unlawful incarceration. But, but they said they wouldn’t harm anyone!” Teddy’s voice was raising in his distress, all that horror he had fought and suffered and endured rising up in his chest, demanding to be heard, “I meant everyone _including_ Ahkmenrah, I never dreamt! Never thought they would do anything worse to him! He wasn’t a threat locked up as he was! He was never a threat! I stayed away, couldn’t face his cries until that night when I was first showing you round, it took everything I had to face it, the taunt falling easily from my lips, a part learned to appease our dictators. And now, now I discover all this time, all this time they have been abusing him most horrendously and I did nothing, NOTHING to stop them!”

Teddy buried his face in his hands as his resolve finally broke. 

Larry and Sacagawea stared helplessly at one another before both of them sat down either side of Teddy, both of them boiling with silent, vengeful fury. Sac wrapped her arms around her bear whilst Larry placed what he hoped was a consoling hand on his shoulder whilst the 26th president wept.

“Larry,” asked Sacagawea calmly, “where do these men reside? Do you know their whereabouts?”

“Why, what—” Larry caught the look in Sac’s eyes. “No, not a chance! NO. I can’t let you.”

“You don’t know what I am asking.” Pointed out Sac innocently.

That didn’t wash with Larry, “No offense but I have been around a lot of impressively tough women in my life, so I _really_ know when someone has the ‘I am going to murder someone’s face off’ look.

“I wouldn’t start with their faces.” muttered Sac darkly.

“See?” Larry flapped, “This is exactly why I am not telling you!”

“They need justice!” bit back Sac.

“Yes, I agree completely but I am not risking you turning to sundust! That would finish Teddy off and I need you on-side here.” Larry took a deep breath, trying to process everything that he’d just learned, “Look, Erica, my ex-wife, she is in law, I’ll see what I can do without risking you guys or the magic. Deal?”

“A fair response.” They both stared in surprise at Teddy who had begun to recover himself. “I apologise my friends, I am usually better at marshalling my emotions.”

Sac softened, “My bear, there is no shame in this, you have suffered greatly and alone.”

“Not as alone as our poor Ahkmenrah.” Teddy was quick to make clear.

“No,” The Shoshone woman agreed, “but just because his suffering was terrible it does not render yours into insignificance.” As she spoke, Sacagawea stroked a tender hand down the side of Teddy’s face, the touch spoke volumes as the roughrider relaxed into her caress. There was such a look that passed between the two of them Larry felt like he was intruding. “You have borne so much for all of us my bear, the least I may do is offer you comfort.”

“I would rather make sure that young man is alright.” Declared Teddy, a tad more forcefully than he needed to be.

“Ahk will be, eventually,” assured Larry, trying to calm himself down as well as the distraught president. Teddy was sat up once more, looking purposeful but there was a frantic energy thrumming through him, he was, to Larry’s eyes on a hair trigger.  “Right now he’s with Jed and Octavius probably getting confused over the internal combustion engine.” The Night Guard paused, feeling guilty for palming off the traumatised Pharaoh on the miniatures but Ahk needed a distraction and Larry had needed, _still_ needed, somewhere away from Ahk, just for a little while, to just absorb everything. He hadn’t been expecting this extra bombshell. “He’s not going to get over this in a few weeks guys so there’s no rush here, we’ve just got to look out for him and after him as best we can. I should probably read up on how to help him and—”

“I apologised to him.” Teddy’s usual joie de vivre was decidedly lacking, if anything the man looked worn out.

That was something Larry had not expected, “What?”

“I apologised to him,” repeated the tired president, “the first night after the tablet had been secured. I wanted to express my utter regret and shame at having not helped him as soon as possible.”

That had the potential to be about as risk-free as tap dancing across a minefield. “Wow, how’d he take it?”

“Graciously. Though now I think about it without the rush of relief clouding my ears I realise I should have picked up on his comments then, ‘I forgive you, those tyrants gave no quarter nor brokered insubordination. I do not blame you.’ He didn’t blame me because he assumed they’d tortured or threatened to torture me in the same way that he had endured. I feel like such a charlatan!” Teddy’s voice rose in his despair.

“Theodore Roosevelt you listen to me right now!” Neither man had heard such a tone from Sacagawea before, “You did the right thing in apologising to Ahkmenrah but it was also best you did not speak to him about all of which you have both suffered.”

“But—”

“Let me finish.” She cut back, “Ahkmenrah is mostly unknown to us all at present, we will now have the privilege of getting to know him but what I do know is that he is young, has just escaped a terrible, enduring torture. He is hanging on by a thread, this display with Larry will not be the last, it is too much for anyone, let alone a young one to process all at once. You cannot share all you know my bear, all your guilt with him now, you will, for both your sakes but not at this moment. For now, you will allow yourself to grieve for your friend and allow yourself to heal from your own hurt.”

“Sac’s right Teddy,” added the night guard for good measure, “they’re purebred bastards.”

“I believe that’s rather a contradictory in terms.” Chuckled Teddy weakly, appreciating the sentiment in which it was offered.

“Maybe,” Larry grinned, a ghost of his usual smile, “but you know what I mean.”

“I believe I do.” The blue eyes filled with warmth, “Thank you Lawrence.”

“Anytime, and honestly, just, really, take your time, you’ve seen me panic and flail and well, panic some more, so, honestly, Teddy I am more than cool with you taking a moment or ten.”

“I appreciate that my boy, “He turned to address Sac, “my dear I would be glad to see justice done but I would never ask you to risk yourself for me.”

Sac’s dark eyes flashed, full of protective compassion, “You did not ask, I offered, my choice, my conviction.”

“And I am humbled beyond words but there has been too much violence, vengeance and cruelty. I say we leave the matter in Lawrence’s capable hands. I could not bear to lose you, no matter the cause, I shall live, I shall build bridges with our pharaoh and I shall revel in the museum growing into its true potential under a considerate leadership.”

“Then I shall respect your wishes, however, if they set foot in here again, I may not be able to honour those intentions.”

“That is all I ask of you.” Teddy marvelled at this woman, only freed three days ago, full of calm good sense and a joy for life and exploration yet so willing to stand by him in strength and weakness. It made him giddy.

“Okay, so no one is murdering anyone, we’re going to keep a close eye on Ahk and make sure he’s okay, you’re not going to worry about bastards being bastards anymore since you know, for the record, I am one hundred and seventy thousand percent opposed to hurting any of you, in any shape or form and generally keep the place from burning down. Sound like a plan?”

“Most definitely,” Agreed Teddy with a genuine smile, “a sound plan indeed.”

“I believe you will do great things Larry Daley, great things.” Smiled Sacagawea.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence. Now, let’s finish these glasses and go rescue Ahk and Octavius from a hyper Texan and his toys.”

“I shall drink to that!”

“As shall I!”

Bonded in a moment of loss, fear and hope the three of them downed their whiskey in one.

That had been a lovely moment, the first time all three had truly become a team. Larry was just sorry it had been in such dire circumstances.  

He pulled himself out of his reverie, breathing in deep and slowly, trying to calm himself down, yes that had been awful and more than a shock to deal with on top of everything else he’d had thrown at him that week but they’d managed. They had held the museum together, Teddy had grieved with his love for his friend, had even enlisted Larry’s help in reproducing a small framed photo of James that Larry had hung in his office. In later months Larry had seen Teddy holding JB, telling him all about his and James’ adventure whilst looking at the picture. From that first drink and explanation of the past Teddy and Sacagawea grew ever closer and they’d kept an eye on Ahk, an eye that had become many pairs, belonging to a family.

Larry was glad Teddy had told Ahk the truth when he had, after that awful evening of him being locked in his sarcophagus again when he’d been looking after Jean-Baptiste however, he knew afterwards Teddy hadn’t told the Pharaoh the whole truth, he’d missed out all the extra horror about James. When Larry had asked Teddy had said quietly that it was more than enough already to lay on Ahk in one conversation, that the pharaoh would have easily blamed himself for James’ suffering too and that Teddy could not abide. He promised he would eventually but obviously for the moment that would have to wait.

It was something Larry was not looking forward too but Ahkmenrah himself would be angry if he found out another way, he would think that they still considered him a child (even if right now he literally was) that he was somehow beneath their esteem or some other such garbage. No, Ahk did deserve to know the whole truth but Larry was really grateful this would be one thing he didn’t have to tell him. Teddy had said it was on him, that they would discuss it ‘man to man’. Even if both Teddy and Larry knew that really meant ‘father to son’.

And of course, there really was no point telling him now, it would sail so far above his head Teddy would have better chance of explaining nuclear physics to Rexy. No, right now, Larry left the office, his breathing under control once again, belly settled against the sickness of horror. He approached a smiling Sacagawea with JB in her arms,  a beaming Teddy and a happy Ahkmen, his trusty Maglite clasped firmly in his tiny hands, moving slightly from side to side as he explained to his Moon-Mother, Papa Bear and Jumble all about the magic wand. If he could handle the headaches it would cause Larry would have to show Ahkmen ‘Star Wars’, the child would lose his mind over lightsabres and that would be fun for everyone to join in with playing pretend lightsabre duels.

“Hey there Ahkmen, you doing a good showing everyone how my Maglite works?”

“Yes Larree! I told them all about the magic light without flame!” The little boy beamed up at him, smiling brighter than the torch himself as he offered the night guard back his beloved flashlight.

“That’s my guy! Well done!” Larry ruffled Ahk’s hair affectionately. The child giggled in response, throwing himself at the night guard’s legs hugging hard.

Yeah thought Larry and he and the other adults exchanged a knowing look. It was nice just see Ahkmen playing, the little boy free from all the concerns of his adult life and whilst obviously they wanted him back this was okay for the time being. He was safe and happy, not claustrophobic and without the memories of years of abuse and confinement. Even if it was for just a month, it was a least a break for Ahk and a chance to maybe build a better collection of memories to take with him into adulthood.

So yeah, right now?

Ignorance was bliss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there we have it guys, a bit more backstory as to what happened during the reign of the previous night guards, I’m really sorry to any who liked the old three but in my ‘verse these guys were real monsters-just like Kahmunrah. Sorry to any of you who are fans!  
> I hope you liked this look into the past, we have now covered the infamous ‘Taser Incident’ I really wanted to show that Ahk’s adaptation to his freedom was quite a long process, he didn’t keep up that happy persona for long and he didn’t trust people instinctively and he really felt like his life was on a knife edge. I wanted to try and make sure I conveyed his trauma and his youth effectively. I hope that all makes sense now, basically if you follow the backstories of Ahk’s reaction to being freed I’ve been throwing in here and there the first thing you have is when Larry is telling Ahk he doesn’t need to re-bandage every night, followed by the taser incident and the last big one is the flower room episode when Larry finds out Ahk needs to sleep. Poor guy had a tough time of it but Larry & the others did their best the help.  
> I also wanted to expand on why Teddy hadn’t really challenged the night guards over their continued incarceration of Ahk and now you know! Thanks to another friend for the idea of the guards removing Teddy’s wax eyelids to make him watch James melt and then replacing them so the day staff didn’t notice-you helped make this darker than I had dared to!  
> As always, please let me know what you think, I always like hearing your thoughts!  
> Thanks for reading! :)


	6. The End of the Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ahkmen has mostly settled into life in the museum and the exhibits have got used to the energetic little boy their Pharaoh was reverted to however, the month is coming to an end and Rebecca is back in her office with access to her notes...
> 
> A chapter in which Ahkmen is adorable, Rebecca is back and Larry is slightly more panicked than usual...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone, I’m so, so sorry I haven’t updated for so long. I’m not going to go into too much detail but over the last three months some incredibly bad stuff has been happening. I lost a friend due to tragic and sudden circumstances and I’ve been looking after a few people immediately affected, also my team of three at work got suddenly reduced in a very abrupt and damaging manner which not only left the two of us shocked and upset but also having to add their workload to ours. On top of this my health’s not been too great of late, I’ve just finished battling another cold. I’m honestly just exhausted. I’m really, really sorry to sound like I am whinging. I know most of you would rather get to the story and I understand completely, I just didn’t want you to think I’d abandoned you all or had been being lazy with this story, it’s been one of the few things keeping me going at the moment and through all the horrible but it’s been written in fits and starts I’m afraid, trying to grab both the time and inspiration has been tricky to say the least. 
> 
> So yes, once again, I’m really sorry you’ve had such a wait, thank you to everyone who’s continued to review, share ideas and remind me that you still want to read the rest of this story, I really appreciate all your kinds thoughts and prods! I really hope you like this chapter, I have another one nearly ready to go so you won’t have to wait nearly as long for the next one! 
> 
> Please read to the end notes-I’ve got an important notice for everyone reading! :)

**The end of the beginning**

The evening, for once, was fairly peaceful, everyone had more or less got used to having a tiny Egyptian around the place although his adult self was sorely missed. Larry himself couldn’t wait to have adult Ahkmenrah back because, whilst the pharaoh as a kid was cute as all get out he had an incredible ability to get himself into trouble.

Like yesterday.

Larry shuddered as he remembered.

***

Where the hell could he have gone? Larry had left Ahkmen colouring in at the desk for five minutes. FIVE minutes. Well, actually, if he was honest, more like 45 minutes. He’d stopped to chat with Columbus after he’d sorted out some disgruntled settlers who been arguing with the Inuits. But seriously, where could he have got to?

Larry had long since given up any sense of surprise that the child was not where he’d left him. Ahkmen seemed to be physically incapable of Just. Staying. Put. Larry had flicked through the book that had been left behind. He’d finished it. Everything was coloured in and Ahkmen had added a few pictures of his own too. Larry wasn’t sure if he’d ever get used to seeing himself replicated in crayon, hieroglyph style. Ahkmen had even added his Maglite to his outstretched arm.

Right, so bored child had gone walk about.

Sac was going to kill him. It was her night off too. Larry had an hour and half to find the little boy before sunrise. He gave himself 30 minutes to find him on his own then he’d have to swallow his pride and ask Sac to track him.

How hard could it be?

28 and a half minutes later Larry was certain he was going to be grey by the end of the night. He knew the museum was big and Ahkmen was small but this was ridiculous. NO ONE had seen him. He was veering towards panic, feeling the rising paranoia of ‘did he double check all the window and doors?’ even though that was one of the very first lessons Ahkmen got of the museum. ‘Only go outside with a grown up you know.’ And even then, they’d not actually been outside yet. But still. He was five.

On the second floor having scoured all the usual spots he was about to give up and call for Sac when a voice caught his attention.

“Dum-Dum”

Larry froze, was that the Maoi head? Was he whispering?

“Dum-Dum!” The head hissed.

Larry was not in mood for teasing right now, “What?” he snapped, “You’ve had your gum gum.”

“No Dum-Dum!” insisted the stone head

“What then?”

“Dum Dum-Dum”

Larry huffed, running his hands through his hair before glaring at Easter, ready to continue his Ahkmen hunt, “I don’t have time for this.”

“I got baby Dum-Dum!”

That made literally no sense. “No you don’t, you’re a head. I have to go.”

Easter lost all sense of patience, “DUM-DUM! I GOT BABY.”

Larry was dumbfounded, “Got baby?”

“GOT BABY AHK-AHK DUM-DUM” explained the exasperated head.

Larry looked about wildly, he wouldn’t lie about something like that, “What?! Where?! How?!”

“Baby Ahk Ahk Climb-Climb.” Came the surprisingly straightforward reply.

“Climb? What?”

“UP UP DUM-DUM!”

Larry let his eyes wander upwards hardly daring to breath. Sure enough, hanging over the edge was one little red sneakered foot.

Why? Just why was he cursed like this? What had he done to deserve this?

“Ahkmen! Get down here this instant!” Yelled Larry in his best ‘I-am-your-guardian-and-I-am-not-messing-around’ voice.

Nothing.

“I swear if I have to come up there-”

“Dum-Dum! Baby Ahk-Ahk Sleepy.” Pointed out Easter, utterly failing to hide the smirk that coloured his words and spread across his face, well, to be fair to him his face was four feet across

Of course he was. This was awkward place number 37 the child had managed to fall asleep in. He had no idea how the kid did it. It was like he had this magic ‘off’ switch that when flipped he either dropped where he was no matter what he was doing which included so far; eating, playing soccer, riding on Attila’s shoulders, tying bows in Ragnar’s beard, explaining chocolate to Teddy, singing to Sac and talking to Jed and Octavius. Or and this was way worse, he went on some sort of weird autopilot to find the most inappropriate place to sleep. The last place of choice had been Rexy’s head. Thankfully the dinosaur himself had been napping at the time. It had been weirdly cute, a boy and his dog. If the boy happened to be a youthenised 4000 year old mummy and the dog happened to be a 65 million year old fossil. Yeah. His life.

So right now he had to work out how to get a sleeping child off the Maoi’s head without breaking anything. Knowing his luck Ahkmen would roll over at the most inopportune moment.

That was another thing, once Ahkmen was asleep, nothing short of a detonation could wake him and even then Larry wouldn’t bet on it. He had in the last month been handed a sleeping Ahkmen from, a confederate soldier (on their cart, under a sack), a slightly rumpled Gaborik and Edil (behind the one of the free standing information boards), Anna (who’d found him in her sewing basket) Bhekabantu who’d found him under a shield, Graw who discovered him in their heap of furs at the back of the cave, Kjartan (who found him behind the spears he’d been cleaning) and Martha, who’d found him spark out sat up in her (thankfully empty) water bucket. Even Rexy had returned him once, dangling by his dungarees straps from the dino’s ever-sharp jaws.

He had no idea how he did it.

Right, matter at hand. Sleeping child dangerously high in the air.

“Crap.” Summed up the Night Guard.

He entertained the idea of jumping up to try and grab him but that would only go horribly wrong.

‘Right.’ Thought Larry, ‘Ladder. Need a ladder.’

Where the hell were they kept? Did they even have ladders? Larry looked about frantically for anyone else about to watch Ahkmen whilst he ran to find something to bring him down with.

No one. Literally there was no one about. Of course there wasn’t.

“Er, Anyone around?” he called out hopefully, “Anyone here at all?”

“Just you and me Dum-Dum”

“Great.” Larry sighed, assessing the situation “Look, just don’t let him fall okay? I’ll be right back.” Easter huffed at him, yeah, really the guy had no hands, what was he supposed to do? Huff him into staying in place?!

The Maoi head summed up the situation succinctly, “Dum-Dum run run.”

“Right, yes running. See you soon.”

Larry hurtled off.

Easter sighed. Dum-Dum was pretty dense sometimes. He whistled.

“Boss Boss! Baby Ahk-Ahk need you”

He didn’t have to wait long.

***

Larry managed to return with the ladder just as Teddy and Sac rounded the corner.

“Lawrence, why do you have a ladder?”

“And why is Nala-” Began Sac using her resigned, long suffering tone.

“Boss Boss get Ahk-Ahk” explained Easter cheerfully in that tone that meant Larry was about to be in serious trouble and Easter thought this fact was hilarious.

All three looked up to see the haughty lioness perched on top of the head, the back of a sleeping Ahk’s t-shirt caught firmly in her teeth.

“GOOD LORD!” Exclaimed Teddy, dropping the reigns in shock.

“Thank you Nala,” Smiled Sac, deciding that she was just going to accept the situation as it caused the lowest amounts of headaches, “just pass him down to us.”

Nala huffed at Sac, pleased to be passing the Ahk-cub to a sensible two-leg, she didn’t trust the flappy dark haired one not to drop the young one. She slowly lowered the sleeping child into the mounted woman’s arms. Once safely settled, Ahkmen snuffled deeper into Sac’s arms, murmuring something that could have been ‘love you Moon-Mother’ completely oblivious to what had just happened.

Nala looked almost tenderly at the boy then nodded to Sac and leapt down gracefully. She took one long look at Larry, snorted then made off for her room. One day Larry thought, she was just going to eat him.

“So, what happened this time?” Sac raised her eyebrow, she had a strong inkling but it was always interesting to hear how Larry got himself in these messes when Ahkmen was involved.

“He wandered off again. I swear I need to get that kid a bell.”

“He would only drive you mad with it.” Pointed out the Shoshone woman.

“True.”

“Well at least he’s not harmed.” Smiled Teddy trying to see the best in the situation.

“No, though we need to try and fix his homing beacon or something, why is it always the most dangerous spots he finds? Next time I bet it’ll be in Rexy’s ribs!”

Teddy’s face darkened, “Don’t joke about that.”

“No, he might actually pull that off. Okay, well, we’re good now. You guys okay to put him to bed?”

“Of course Lawrence.”

“Try to keep a closer eye on him next time Larry.”

“You bet.”

They headed off towards Ahkmen’s room.

‘I swear to god,’ Larry thought, ‘I am getting that kid chipped’

The Night Guard came back to himself, he considered everything that had happened- in retrospect things could have been a hell of a lot worse, like really, Ahkmen could have continued not trusting any of them, he could have cried for his parents constantly,  refused to or couldn’t learn English, hell, he could have even been a brat.

As it was, Ahkmenrah as a child had adapted pretty well to life in the museum, there had only been two incidents of poor behaviour which had been quickly rectified. The first had been the tantrum Ahkmen had tried to throw on his second night in the museum, when he was overtired and miserable, he managed about a minute of angry crying before Sac had scooped him up and effectively put him in time out. Eight minutes in the office on his own had put Ahkmen off any further attempts to strop, preferring to play with others and not be left on his own for any length of time. It was a punishment that he disliked enough that the merest hint of it had him behaving like an angel (not that there had been much call to even hint, the kid really was well behaved 99% of the time) Larry decided for his own sanity not to dwell on the idea that it was likely part of the reasoning for Ahkmen’s good behaviour was that the child was still grateful to them for the that they would neither hit him or bury him alive as a punishment. Both ideas still made Larry shudder.

The other incident had been about two weeks in, Ahkmen had been fascinated with Dexter.

Dexter had finally shown his face about three days after his actions had caused the problem of the tiny pharaoh in the first place. The subsequent telling off Larry gave him was one for the record books, Dexter actually looked ashamed, _really_ ashamed. If Larry didn’t think it was entirely impossible he was certain the capuchin would have been sobbing by the end of it. He had run off after nodding at Larry’s firm ‘don’t do it again’ and Larry was hoping that for once Dexter might actually listen, he’d really gone to town on the mischievous primate, pointing out how his actions could have _killed_ Ahk, could have _killed_ Nicky if Ahk hadn’t of pushed him out of the way, it could have broken the tablet and stopped the magic forever and had he wanted any of that?

Dexter had vehemently shook his head, had he thought about any of his consequences? Dexter shook his head again looking thoroughly miserable. Larry got down on a level with Dexter and had made him promise that next time he’d think, that he’d consider the repercussions since whilst Larry knew Dexter was a mischief maker he wasn’t bad, he wasn’t out to upset people just cause a little harmless chaos. He’d realised that after the first few nights in charge after the old guards had been finally dismissed, Dexter had been watching Larry (almost as much as Ahk had as it turned out) before leaping on him and hugging him with no preamble.

Larry had been a tad surprised, getting a simian to the face and all but once he realised Dexter wasn’t trying to bite or distract him Larry brought a tentative hand up to stroke his little furry back.

Attila was passing with his men, he took in the sight and smiled.

“You got any idea what his deal is?”

_“Dexter is happy.”_

“Umm, okay?”

Attila sighed, realising the Night Guard hadn’t figured out the obvious. “ _Dexter likes you Night Guard. You’re kind, you listen to us, the other guards didn’t, they were cruel in the worst ways, they locked up most of us and never listened. Dexter’s like a child, he just wants to be safe, to play, the old guards never liked play in the museum. You are kind, you allow play so Dexter likes you, he might even trust you.”_

“Oh-kay.” Larry hadn’t understood a word but Attila was pretty demonstrative when he was explaining something so he got the gist at least. Nice to know he’d won the capuchin over, though Larry had not been naive enough to think that that meant he was going to now be free of monkey-based shenanigans, just that they weren’t going to be as provocative as before. He hoped.

At present he was still working on an un-detachable key-ring. Once he got it perfected he was going patent the hell out of it. What Larry had learned in last six months of being in the museum that whilst Dexter was a prankster he wasn’t actually mean-spirited.

So when an ear-piercing shriek had ripped through the museum and Larry, running at warp-speed having dropped the files he’d been going through looking at the list of new exhibits due to appear in the next few weeks and quietly despairing, did not leap to conclusions when he saw a wailing Ahkmen clutching his arm and a sheepish looking Dexter stood near to him.

The night guard sighed, first things first. He opened up his arms to the crying little boy who threw himself at him. After an initial cuddle Larry manage to calm Ahkmen down enough to find out what had happened.

“D-D-Dexter bit me!”

This surprised Larry, the capuchin wasn’t malicious. Hell, he’d let Ahkmen fall asleep on him before. He raised his eyebrow at the simian. Dexter began to act out an account of what had happened with impressive clarity.

Larry mopped up the child in his arms and checked the bite. His arm was a little red, there where tiny dents to show teethmarks but Dexter hadn’t broken the skin, and he could if he wanted too. This had clearly been a warning rather than an ‘I am trying to hurt you human.’

“Ahkmen,” asked the Night Guard when the tiny Egyptian had stopped crying, “what happened?”

“Dexter bit me!” cried the child indignantly.

“Dexter doesn’t just bite people, he’s not mean like that. So what happened?”

“He bit me! Look!” The child showed his arm again.

“I know he bit you Ahkmen but Dexter wouldn’t just bite you to be mean. Did you do something to upset him?”

Ahkmen suddenly got very interested in the floor, “No…”

“Ahkmen, tell me the truth. Did you do something to upset Dexter?”

“No…”

“Ahkmen, I know you’re not telling me the truth. Do you want to sit in time out till you do?” Larry hated using the threat given how it made the child react but he wasn’t going to get a decent answer otherwise and he needed to get this situation fixed pronto.

Ahkmen’s head shot up eyes round with fear. “I hugged him too hard!” Confessed the child immediately. Larry really hated how well the threat worked.

“You hugged him too hard?”

“I wanted show him I loved him.”

“And?”

“He didn’t want to be cuddled.”

“So…”

“I cuddled him more so he knew.”

“Ahkmen did you hurt Dexter?”

“I DIDN’T MEAN TOO!” Cried the child who promptly burst into tears again.

“Hey, hey now, it’s alright, look. Am I right in understanding that you wanted to cuddle Dexter and he didn’t want to?”

Ahkmen sniffed. “Y-Yes.”

“And so you decided to cuddle him anyway?”

“Y-Yes.”

“Right. And what have we learned?”

“Dexter bites!”

“No, what have we really learned?”

“That, that,” sniffed Ahkmen, “that I shouldn’t cuddle Dexter.”

“No, you can cuddle Dexter if Dexter say’s it’s okay. You didn’t like it when the Anubis guards picked you up did you?”

“They were going to take me to the underworld!”

“No they weren’t but you thought they were going to hurt you, you thought I was going to hurt you on your first night here and you bit me remember?”

Ahkmen’s eyes widened at the memory, fear flooding back “I’m sorry! I was scared!” he cried quickly.

Larry was quick to reassure, “I know, it’s okay, I’m not mad about that but think about what you said, you were scared and that’s why you bit me.”

Ahkmen face suddenly cleared with realisation, “I, he, Dexter was scared! Of me!” To his credit the child looked deeply horrified, turning to the unusually quiet capuchin who’d been watching the whole exchange quietly, he launched into a thoroughly unprompted and utterly heartfelt apology, “I’m very sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you or hurt you! I’ll never do it again! Please forgive me Dexter!” He bowed low in apology as was the way he’d been taught. Dexter looked up to Larry, confusion all over his face. Larry just nodded encouragingly.

Dexter reached out and patted Ahkmen’s curls gently, cooing consolingly and clearly absolving the child. Ahkmen sat back up, sniffing unhappily and very, very sorry. Unbidden Dexter climbed up on the child’s lap, carefully wrapping his arms around the child’s neck, nuzzling against his cheek.

“Well it looks like you guys are friends again doesn’t it? And what have we learned Ahkmen?”

“Always ask to cuddle and don’t be rough.” Answered the child immediately. 

“That’s my little guy, good boy.” He ruffled Ahkmen’s hair affectionately and petted Dexter’s fur gently, “good job buddy,” he told the monkey, “thanks for being cool.” The capuchin gave him the thumbs up.

Those two incidents were the only two problems they’d really encountered with Ahkmen’s behaviour, and both times they’d been managed pretty damn quick. Ahkmen himself was a pretty sweet kid, he loved to play and run about with people, shoulder rides on the Huns and Vikings was one of his favourite things. Though, one of Larry’s unexpectedly favourite things Ahkmen did was if he was particularly excited by something he cartwheeled in happiness.

He and Nicky occasionally had competitions to see how far down the long gallery they could make it, they were getting pretty good.

It was funny thought Larry, just how used he’d got to having Ahkmen around, he really missed the Pharaoh of course and desperately wanted his mostly collected, calm, tablet wielding friend back but, but he was going to miss the princeling too, there was just something about having him around that Larry was going to miss like a limb. The little boy was basically condensed sunshine most of the time and his presence had encouraged even more bonding between exhibits in the museum. He suspected he wasn’t the only person who was going to miss that brightness.

Just this evening he’d been accosted by said bouncy sunshine.

*Stomp Stomp* Larry looked up at unfamiliar noise spotting a tiny pharaoh thumping his feet as he approached the desk.  "What are you doing Ahkmen?"

"I'm Rexy!" came the unabashed reply, *Stomp, Stomp*

The small child was stamping his feet heavily and holding his arms close to him in an imitation of the dino-puppy. He was even shaking his bottom as though he had a tail. Had Larry not been Nicky-proofed though his early dinosaur phase he might of actually died of cuteness overload.

"So you are, are you going to play fetch?"

"Not yet!" With that the little boy stomp-ran up to Larry, leaping at the last second to thump into his chest. Larry, not expecting a flying dino-puppy-princeling went down like a sack of potatoes. "Ooph!"

Ahkmen giggled before Larry could even think to check if the child was alright, the excited little boy pressed his button nose into Larry's cheek and nuzzled him affectionately. "And," Larry managed, "now what are you doing?"

 "That's how Rexy says 'I love you' and I do too, so," He nuzzled Larry again for good measure, "there." With that he bounded off to apparently leap-nuzzle someone else. Larry sat up on his elbows, whilst not impressed at being floored by a five-year old he couldn't begrudge the sentiment behind it. Though he felt there would be a lot more startled affection before the night was out. "AAAH!"

**CRASH**

 Apparently he found Attila first.

But despite all the ridiculous amounts of affection and the fact that Ahkmen had finally, _finally_ accepted that Larry was safe and trustworthy to the point he’d pull that without worrying about getting Larry mad, tonight was the night. Rebecca was back at her office in California and they were going to go through it all together, the plan was that they work out how to do it, have a last play/cuddle session with Ahkmen, put him to bed and then return him to his grown form whilst he was covered in blankets to preserve grown Ahk’s modesty. That was the plan, Larry knew grown Ahk was going to have the freak out to end all freak outs but if he could be in his own exhibit and not in front of the whole museum then it would be an attempt at damage control.

It was the least he could do.

It was nearing time. Larry headed over to his office to set up the Skype chat. At 8pm on the dot the call came through.

“Hey Rebecca, how are you doing?” The Night Guard grinned at the smiling docent turned international best seller, he tried to ignore the flutter in his belly, “You’re looking radiant.” Damn, real smooth Daley.

“Thanks,” she couldn’t help the blush forming at his words, “you’re looking good too, how’s things?”

“Oh you know,” Larry grinned, trying to hide how tired he was, “coping, it’s been pretty busy but we’re pretty fixed in a routine now and he’s been really—”

A piping little voice cut off the night guard’s explanation, “Larry Guardian! Come look at— Ooh! Hello! You’re a very pretty flat lady! What’s your name? Are you from another world? Do you live in there? My name’s Ahkmen what’s yours? I live here in the halls of the Gods and Larry Guardian looks after me with Moon Mother and Papa Bear. You’re very pretty, I’m not seen eyes like yours! They’re like gems from the mineral room! They’re all sparkly! Look Larry, doesn’t she have jewels for eyes? Are you married?” The words poured out Ahkmen in a torrent of excitement.  

“There you are!” Sac appeared on the heels of the tiny pharaoh, “I said not to bother Larry if he was busy.”

Ahkmen pouted, little face creasing into a frown, “But I wanted to show him!”

Sac smiled with the patience of a well-practiced parent, “I know what you wanted to show him but what have we said about waiting?

Ahkmen drooped, “M’sorry, I was excited.”

“I know little moon, how about you ask Larry if you can show him after he’s spoken to Rebecca?”

Ahkmen huffed, “alright,” he turned to the night guard, “Larry can I show you my backflip after?”

He ruffled Ahkmen’s curls affectionately, “sure little buddy, let me just finish up here and I’ll come watch.”

“Yay!” Cried the child, planting a happy kiss on Larry’s cheek before taking Sac’s proffered hand, “Bye pretty Rebecca Flat-Lady!”

With that Sac and Ahkmen left them in peace.

Rebecca held out about six seconds before dissolving into giggles.

Larry tried to carry on in the face her laughter, “Yeah, sorry about—”

She held up a staying hand, “Don’t, don’t! It’s okay, is that what it’s been like here, what he’s been like?”

“Yeah, I mean—”

“He is so adorable!” Rebecca looked dangerously close to turning into mush. “He’s been like that the whole time? Larry, why didn’t you tell me he was so cute?! I know you’ve been teaching him English and you’ve said he’s settled in but goodness me!”

“Yeah, yeah, I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to influence your decision, it’s bad enough that half the museum wants to keep him as he is!”

“I wouldn’t do that! I am rather disappointed I won’t get to cuddle him but that doesn’t mean we keep him like this, we owe it to Ahkmenrah to bring him back to normal.” Rebecca hadn’t spent all that much time around Ahk, on the first few nights she had been ensconced with Sacagawea trying desperately not to flail like an excited fan and ask serious academic questions for her thesis. As it was, Sacagawea was kind and patient and answered everything she could, the two had bonded quickly over tea and become good friends by the end of the recording processes. But it had left little time to get know the others before she had to polish her work for submission and the subsequent whirlwind of acceptance, book deal and ensuing tour had taken her a long way from the museum. From what she remembered of grown Ahkmenrah he was a young, composed, regal man with impressive posture and formal manners and not the happy little ball of sunshine that had just bounced into the room.

“He, he was quite different as a child wasn’t he?” She knew he’d suffered of course, had Larry almost weeping on the phone to her after a few of the more upsetting revelations, pouring out all the horror to the only other flesh and blood person on the planet he could talk to about it all. But she also knew from Larry’s stories, Ahk had slowly been coming out of his shell, becoming less Pharaoh and more friend, trusting them all more and more. She had often smiled at how fondly Larry had spoken of Ahk, of them all of course but she could hear in his voice every time he spoke about the young Egyptian that he was considering him more and more an adoptive son. This regression had crushed him, the fact that the child only recently had begun to trust Larry fully had really taken a toll on him.

“Yeah, yeah he was,” agreed Larry sadly, not looking forward to seeing that shadow reappear behind his grown friend’s eyes, “he didn’t have the weight of the world on him for a start.”

“So I see.” Rebecca paused, considering her words carefully, “It’s probably been good for him to have a second childhood really.”

“Yeah, you know? I really agree despite all the everything.” articulated Larry eloquently. He’d tried so hard, they all had, determined to make the best of a bad situation and try to make sure Ahkmen was happy, that he felt loved and looked after and really, deep down he knew they’d more than succeeded. He hoped that it would eventually be appreciated by the pharaoh, that they hadn’t crossed some unwritten line, that Ahkmenrah would be okay with the fact that he’d been so vulnerable and thus required looking after.

Who was he kidding?

Ahk was going to flip tables.

But, hopefully, once he’d calmed down he’d see the care for what it was, love. Honest and true, that he was one of the family and loved by all of them.

“But I think we’re all ready to have Ahkmenrah back.” Added Rebecca gently, seeing Larry’s mind begin to wander, she could see the start of the worry lacing through him again, she really didn’t think it was going to be so bad, Ahk was proud yes but he wasn’t an idiot, he’d quickly realise the intention and feeling behind all their actions.

Larry pulled himself back to the present, “Yeah, yeah we are, so, you ready to get a load of this tablet?

“Ready and waiting, I’ve been studying the notes from when he was brought to the museum and against the hieroglyphic translations I have so I’m as prepared as I can be.”

“Great, thanks Rebecca, I really appreciate it.”

“I’m just glad I can try to help.”

“Okay here it is,” Larry carefully lifted up the tablet to the webcam, “can you see it okay?”

“No, not clearly, can you turn on another light?”

“Um, sure, one sec,” He fumbled around for the lamp and turned it on, angling it so the golden inscription didn’t glare and blind Rebecca.

“That’s great, thanks. Oh,”

“You’re welcome, hey, what?”

Rebecca’s brow was furrowed in concern.

“What is it?”

Rebecca didn’t answer, her eyes were scanning the tablet frantically.

“Rebecca what—?”

She ignored him, flicking from her notes and photographs and back to the tablet.

“Rebecca!”

The Docent looked up, eyes wide with horror. “I’m so sorry Larry.”

Dawning realisation at her meaning sunk like lead in his belly, “No, you can’t, there’s got to be—”

“I’m so sorry, there’s nothing wrong with the tablet, there’s nothing out of place.”

“No!”

“Larry, there’s nothing I can do, I can’t fix it!

“Rebecca please!” begged the night guard, “There must be something! Maybe you missed something!”

“I’ve been working on this for three days straight! I haven’t missed anything! I’ve tripled checked everything, everything is in place, it’s not even dented! Larry, I’m so sorry. There’s nothing wrong with it, Ahkmenrah is stuck like this.”

**_To be continued…_ **

**_ _ **

 

Here's some fantastic fanart done by the ever-lovely [_Remy_](http://chesterbennington.co.vu/) of Ahkmen fast asleep on top of a smiling Easter! 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, before all of you decide you hate me (especially after this long, LONG wait) and swear that you’ll never read this series again I just want to say that I, Oddments and Tweaks solemnly promise that Ahkmenrah, fourth king of a fourth king and very much GROWN UP ruler of the lands of his fathers WILL return to us. I promise. ( I was a girl guide too so I’m accountable on promise making!) 
> 
> There are some MAJOR plot points I have to develop and that won’t happen without Ahkmen because Ahkmenrah, as much as I and everyone else loves him is just too formal and reserved to do and say the things Ahkmen won’t think twice about and it’s those doings and sayings that is going to kickstart the next few plot arcs.  
> This is going to be a monster series, I think, right now, we’re just about at the half way mark. I need these plot arcs to happen to make some of the next sections plausible and very importantly to allow my end-game scenario work. Trust me when I say I have a happy ending worthy of the record books planned. 
> 
> If anyone is desperate to know what I’m planning and doesn’t mind spoilers feel free to find me on [_tumblr_](http://muddyhippy.tumblr.com/) and ask!
> 
> The next chapter is coming very soon! :)
> 
> Thanks again for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you thought of this chapter, I'd love to hear from you. 
> 
> I'll do my best to update fortnightly through September since I still have a huge amount going on right now!
> 
> Thanks so much for reading!


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